Working with the Jewish community’s burial boards, regional Jewish communities and the Jewish Small Communities Network as of the week ending 11th December there have been 599 Jewish funerals carried out where the deceased contracted Covid-19. This represents an increase of 20 such reported funerals on the previous week.
We wish bereaving families a long life, and pray that the memory of their loved ones should be for a blessing.
The Board of Deputies is liaising with seven of the largest denominational burial boards to collate an indicator of deaths where Covid-19 was a factor. These denominational burial boards are: The Adath Yisroel Burial Society, the Federation of Synagogues Burial Society, the Joint Jewish Burial Board, Liberal Judaism, the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community, the United Synagogue Burial Society and the Western Charitable Foundation. The Board of Deputies has either received reports from the following regional communities, or has accounted for them through the largest denominational burial boards where they cover that particular community: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bognor Regis, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove, Canvey Island, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Cornwall, Darlington, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Exeter, Gateshead, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Solihull, Southend, Southport, St Annes, Stoke on Trent and Swansea. The indicator enumerates how many funerals were carried out by these burial societies and communities where COVID-19 appeared on the death certificate of the deceased. As such it covers both deaths in hospitals and in the wider community. When making comparisons of data, please note that data separate to this indicator may not have similar parameters. Please do not take successive figures as indicative of exact trend as smaller communities cannot report weekly.
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: “The Board of Deputies has recorded a larger increase in reported Covid-19 mortality in the Jewish community this week than in previous weeks. This may or may not be the start of a trend. However, as communities in London, Hertfordshire and Essex move into Tier 3 to join those such as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Gateshead, it serves as a reminder that we should all be carefully adhering to Government guidance.”