AJS Review
- AJS Review / Volume 36 / Issue 01 / April 2012, pp 71-102
- Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 2012
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0364009412000037 (About DOI), Published online: 20 April 2012
Research Article
Ashes to Outcasts: Cremation, Jewish Law, and Identity in Early Twentieth-Century Germany
Adam S. Ferzigera1 c1
a1 Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan
When Chief Rabbi Ḥayim (Vittorio) Castiglioni of Rome (b. 1840) passed away in 1911, he was cremated as per his request and his ashes were then buried in the Jewish cemetery of his native Trieste. One local Jewish newspaper pointed out that Castiglioni's position—cremation is permitted according to Jewish law and is even preferable to traditional burial—was definitely a minority one within the Italian rabbinate. By no means, however, was he accused by any of his rabbinic colleagues of being a heretic.
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