Clarification on "ZAKA"

21 Shevat 5772

Anonymous left this comment at the ZAKA blogpost:

It is disgusting and utterly sick to question the need to arrange proper and sensitive kavod for every meis of every belief and ethnicity. Jewish, Muslim and Xian volunteers join ZAKA because they wish to help and for no other motive. Enlisting the help of nonjewish volunteers is particularly significant in regards to the Asians who are working in the country, and whose traditions we are not familiar with. I assume you genius would know how to care for a deceased of the Buddhist or the Hindu faith? The family, if it can be contacted at all, is overseas and speaks a different language. What about people who die without documents and whose religion is not immediately apparent to us who are not well-learned in their beliefs?

Proper and sensitive respect for our fellow humans who have prematurely encountered death in a foreign country where they were trying to make a living - is first of all what discriminate humans from apes and animals - and is key to good relations with authorities in foreign countries, where it happens that Jewish people pass away without a will and where procedures forbidden by halacha are usual.

I will consider your article with more sympathy when you argue for all nonjewish personnel to be expelled from hospitals, universities, and in fact, from all jewish workplaces, as it is much easier to become friends in such a setting. I will also have more sympathy when you and your family will volunteer for all those jobs that none of us enjoys applying for, and which are left to nonjewish workers, whose bodies, just like the Jews', we try to recompose when they pass away in terror attacks or in gruesome work or traffic accidents and no family is there for them. Sure I hope should it happen to me or my loved ones in a foreign country, someone, whatever their religion, would make an effort to respect my body according to halacha.

I have always been a great admirer of the work that ZAKA does. I should have made it clearer that my complaint is with this "NEW" direction that ZAKA is taking.

Anonymous is absolutely right that the Gentiles living, working and even touring in Israel have the right to expect that if the worst should happen to them while they are here, we will see to the proper disposition of their earthly remains. They are welcomed here and encouraged and sometimes even brought here by the Israeli government and even though we disagree with that policy, it in no way lessens our responsibility for them.

However, that does not mean that we are free to assist and even encourage the process of internal assimilation which the Erev Rav regime has promoted in Eretz Yisrael. As it says in the article:

"...with more and more volunteers working together, the barriers will come down, people’s outlook on life changes, and we become more united,...."

It's not talking about unity among Jews, but unity between Jews and Gentiles and this is assur from the Creator who gave us the Torah. We must fight against it in whatever way we can. This is my complaint against ZAKA's self-proclaimed "NEW" declaration.

I advocate separate training for specialized groups to be operated separately by the various Gentile communities for this purpose. ZAKA should train them and in so doing minimize as much as possible the interaction between Jews and Gentiles until the training is complete. Thereafter, there should be no socializing between the Jews and the various groups. Take care of the matter at hand and zehu!

I hope that anyone reading this who has any input into or influence with ZAKA will raise my concerns with its founder and/or leadership.

And Mr. Anonymous, I have long argued for all Gentiles, except for those Bnei Noach who have the approval of the Sanhedrin, to leave Eretz Yisrael, and for the Diaspora Jews to come home and fill up our homeland.