A Dream Beyond Borders: A Father's Final Wish

A poignant story: It began about a year ago when Rabbi Chaim Weingarten from ZAKA and Rabbi Shaya Deitsch from Chabad in Russia received a tearful phone call from a Jewish woman of Russian descent. She recounted how, time and again, her late father appeared in her dreams, pleading with her to free him from the non-Jewish cemetery in Russia where he was interred back in 1996.

"I find no peace here," the father repeatedly told his daughter in her dreams, disrupting her rest night after night. "Please, take me from this place and lay me to rest among our people."

The case deeply moved the hearts of those involved—Rabbi Chaim Weingarten, Rabbi Shaya Deitsch, and Rabbi David Bloch—who promptly began working tirelessly to gather all the necessary documents for the complex process. 

According to Rabbi Deitsch, this case is just one of many where families seek to relocate their loved ones from non-Jewish cemeteries to be reburied among Jewish graves. "We removed the bones and brought them to Sheremetyevo Airport in Russia on Thursday night, with tears of emotion filling the air as we loaded the casket onto the plane bound for Israel," Rabbi Deitsch explained. 

Last Friday, the casket arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, completing the process in a manner befitting the deceased. "An emotional end to a challenging story," Rabbi Chaim Weingarten recounted on Friday, as he and additional ZAKA volunteers attended the reburial of the Jewish man's remains at the new cemetery in Gan Yavne.