Burial of the Unclaimed

This Thursday I represented the Jewish community at the annual Burial of the Unclaimed. I joined a group of other faith leaders, mostly Christian, but also Buddhist and Native American, providing a Jewish prayer and emphasizing that when we Jews remember our dead we commit to doing work to benefit those in need in this life. This year the ceremony laid to rest the cremated remains of 2,308 individuals in a (small) mass grave. It is painful to live in a place where so many people can be so completely forgotten in a year that there is no one to remember them.  

Supervisor Janice Hahn spoke for the county saying:

“This annual ceremony is part of a commitment that the county has upheld since 1896 to ensure everyone in Los Angeles County, no matter their means, is laid to rest with respect and dignity,” 

“We don’t know enough about the lives of the people we are laying to rest this week to do their memories justice, but we know many of them were unhoused. Some were children. Some were immigrants to this country. Many were sick. Some suffered from mental illness that made their lives painful and difficult. Almost all of them were very poor. And for one reason or another, they had no loved ones to claim their bodies when they passed.”

“I think this is one of the more special things we do as a county, and it means a lot to me to be part of it every year. These individuals left this world alone and we take this responsibility seriously to honor their lives and grieve their deaths.’’

I was invited to participate in this ceremony because I have been answering the occasional chaplaincy calls that General Hospital receives from Jewish patients. These patients tend to fall into the categories that Supervisor Hahn mentions. I get the calls because I have been willing to get up and go, not because I am the best at the job. I was at the burial, not because I have been effective at saving any lives or because I am some powerful figure in the Jewish community, but because, for those doing the real work, I have shown some concern. In the battle that they are doing for LA’s poor and indigent I have toured the front lines. 

Hopefully in this coming year the Jewish community in LA can turn a greater part of its resources towards ameliorating the plight of those who suffer with the indignities and physical harm that poverty (and madness) causes when it goes unaddressed.