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Author: Bill McClellan
In 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan wrote an article about a remarkable series of events that led to a traditional Jewish burial for a Jewish man -- when that man was on the verge of being cremated.
Below is the article link:
For those unable to access the article, feel free to read the summary below:
Dale Hough was put up for adoption in 1963. Dale's adoptive father put him in a Catholic school, and Dale later married Margie Hood, and had two daughters. Margie, a Catholic, encouraged Dale to raise their daughters in the Catholic faith.
When Dale was in his late 30's he found out that his biological mother was Jewish. Being a voracious reader, Dale threw himself into learning upon his Jewish faith, and took an evening class on basic Judaism at Aish HaTorah, an organization dedicated to introducing adult Jews to their heritage. The instructor was Rabbi Ze'ev Smason.
Dale and Rabbi Smason hit it off. And although their contact as the years went by wasn't frequent, Dale did stay in touch, occasionally stopping by the Aish HaTorah study center to have a heart-to-heart talk with Rabbi Ze'ev, exploring what being Jewish meant to him.
As the years went by, Dale began having emotional challenges, separated from Margie and went on disability. But he still stayed in touch with Rabbi Ze'ev.
In February of 2010, the rabbi got a phone call from a nun. She asked if he was the rabbi who was friends with Dale Hough. Rabbi Smason answered in the affirmative. The nun said Dale, who had been working as a volunteer at a food pantry, had died and his family was trying to raise funds for a cremation. The nun asked the rabbi if he would help.
Rabbi Smason took a deep breath, and then explained to the nun that cremation was against Jewish law. He said he would be happy to try to arrange a proper burial.
"I'm so glad you said that," the nun replied. "I'm also against cremation. But you need to be in touch with Margie."
Rabbi Smason called Margie to ask if he could help arrange a traditional Jewish burial for Dale. She said she'd be grateful, but that she didn't have the funds to cover the cost. So Rabbi Smason began making phone calls. Berger Memorial Funeral Home agreed to donate a casket. Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery agreed to donate a plot. Rosenbloom Monument Co. agreed to donate a monument.
Dale had a proper Jewish burial. And at the monument dedication, Margie was present with her two daughters and their three children were present. So were a number of people from Rabbi Smason's Nusach Hari B'nai Zion synagogue. None of them had ever met Dale, but Dale was, they told a visitor, a member of their community.
Rabbi Smason talked about the confluence of events that had led to the gathering.
"It was almost like the start of a joke," he said. "There was this rabbi, a nun and an ex-wife ..." And then, of course, kindness and generosity because Dale was a kind and generous man. He was not a man who went to synagogue, nor was he an observant Jew, but he was a proud Jew, Rabbi Smason said.
Then there were psalms in Hebrew and English, the Mourner's Kaddish, and finally the memorial prayer, the Kayl Malay, which the rabbi sang for Dale Hough, a fellow Jew and a member of a strong and loving community.