WIESENTHAL CENTER CALLS ON WHITE HOUSE TO OVERRULE ARMY RESTRICTION ON THE JEWISH  BURIAL OF WWII CHAPLAIN AT ARLINGTON

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today urged the White House to overrule the denial of a burial of U.S. Army Chaplain Rabbi Abraham Klausner at Arlington National Cemetery. Before his death last Thursday, Klausner requested that he be buried at Arlington, but over the weekend, the request was denied because that his time in the Army was not long enough to warrant a casketed internment. Klausner’s family was told by Army officials that the only way he can be interred at Arlington is have his remains cremateda violation of Jewish law. Because of limited space at the cemetery, exceptions to the Arlington burial rules are rarely given, but a request from the White House can override the rules.
       
Rabbi Klausner was the first Jewish Chaplain to enter the Dauchau concentration camp after its liberation in WWII. He spent his time seeing to the needs of the Holocaust survivors who were moved to deportation camps. He brought them food, performed religious services, and spoke out on their behalf to U.S. government.

“Chaplain Klausner served the United States with great distinction by acting as a father figure to tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “It is outrageous that a man who gave so much to his country be refused a burial because his religious beliefs do not allow his remains to be cremated,” he added.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
       
For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.