Here’s another ethical issue and Jewish source response:

Case

George Lane was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia.  After the burial the local board of rabbis tried to have him dug up and moved elsewhere.  The problem was that after the burial the authorities learned that George was an active Messianic Jew who accepted Jesus and who continued that faith up to the moment he died.  Before the burial the family had told the cemetery that they were Jewish and had always been Jewish. There were no conversions in the family. They later said, “Our lifestyle is Jewish from beginning to end, but we know that Jesus, Yeshua, is the Messiah.  We are just amazed that they made such an issue of it.”

Should George Lane, who spent much of his life trying to get other Jews to accept Jesus as God, be considered a Jew?  Should he remain buried in a Jewish cemetery?

Answer

[a] In the Talmud it teaches: “Even though they sin, they are still called Israel” (Sanhedrin 44a).  This is understood to mean that no matter what sin a Jew commits (including conversion to another religion), he or she is always still considered to be a Jew.  This is also true of a Jew-by-choice. From the moment of conversion, he or she is now “stuck” being a Jew forever.

[b] An Israeli secular court ruled: “Anyone born of a Jewish mother who has not converted to another religion is to be considered a Jew for purposes of the Law of Return (Brother Daniel Case).

[c] The American Reform Movement has decided that “anyone born of a Jewish parent who has been raised in a consistent pattern of Jewish involvement is to be considered a Jew (CCAR).

By traditional understandings, George Lane is a Jew.

[d]  We are also taught in the Talmud: “You do not bury a righteous person next to an evil person” (Sanhedrin 47a).  Commentaries define an evil person as a (a) murderer, (b) sex offender, or (c) apostate (a Jew who tries to convert Jews to other religions).

NOTE:

The commentaries on Gittin 61a make it clear that Christians may not be buried in a Jewish cemetery.  When Jews and non-Jews share a communal cemetery, a wall must be built between a Jew and a non-Jew. In a Conservative responsum, Rabbi Ben Zion Bergman argues with Moshe Feinstein (Orthodox) that the non-Jewish spouse of a Jew can be buried in a Jewish cemetery.  Feinstein says no, even ruling that Conservative converts should be treated as non-Jews. Bergman, while not authorizing the burial of non-Jewish family members by Conservative rabbis, says that a Conservative Jew need not object to burial by Reform rabbis. Bergman argues, “It is wrong to consider a person who supported the Jewish community and raised Jewish children to be evil.”

If George Lane had not already been buried, his burial in a Jewish cemetery would be forbidden under traditional Jewish law because he would be considered an apostate, and that would define him as evil.   However, Jewish law also (a) forbids the embarrassment of a living person and (b) demands that the bodies of the dead be treated with respect. In this case, the final rabbinic decision was to build a wall one brick high around the grave of George Lane to inform the family that this was not a precedent for the burial of additional Messianic Jews.  They also forbid the use of Christian symbols on the headstone.  

Joel Grishaver, “You Be the Judge”, pgs. 53-55

Used with permission from Joel Grishaver