Manhattan, NY – Nephew Says Aunt’s Ghost Told Him She Wanted Burial Not Cremation

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    Manhattan, NY – The man who has held up his great-aunt’s cremation for nearly three months believes the 105-year-old has spoken to him from beyond the grave asking to be buried instead, a relative said.

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    James Pollak, who lives in Israel and objects to cremation on religious grounds, thinks Ethel Baar’s soul is “crying out to him to save her,” his sister told the Daily News yesterday.

    Baar’s body has been in a cooler inside the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel since September while Pollak attempts to overturn her wish to be cremated.

    A judge will attempt to resolve the dispute next month.

    “After she died, he felt Auntie Ethel now knows that she was wrong about cremation and wants to be buried,” Pollak’s sister, Nancy Pollak, said. “We have all been begging him to just withdraw his objection.”

    Baar stated her desire to be cremated in a 1999 will and she paid the funeral home in full for the service five years ago. Her New York relatives say her wishes were very clear and are outraged they have not been granted.

    James Pollak is an Orthodox Jew, but relatives said Baar was not a religious person. Operators of the funeral home said they felt caught in the middle of an odd family feud.

    “It’s a horrible end to her life story,” the holdout’s sister said.


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    20 Comments
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    yochtzel
    yochtzel
    13 years ago

    Do any thing say any thing, just get the job done.

    13 years ago

    it’s very true for us Yiden who believe in the World To Come – she got up to heaven and saw the truth and is now begging for a Yiddish burial

    DRSLZ
    DRSLZ
    13 years ago

    It is imperative that we encourage all of our loved ones to 1) obtain a health care proxy and financial power of attorney [as discussed at length in the recent Agudath Israel convention] and 2) prepare a will in accordance with Jewish law.

    Shira Smiles tells a poignant story of a student who found out about her grandparents’ wishes to be cremated and was able to convince them otherwise by writing to them that she wanted to visit their graves and tell their future grandchildren about them, and pray, at the gravesite.

    Challenging a legal document such as a will after the person has died is a much more difficult venture.

    Sam23
    Sam23
    13 years ago

    Did he hear it from a talking fish?

    Berel13
    Berel13
    13 years ago

    She also told him Amselem is responsible for the drought

    13 years ago

    The judge has to rule based on the civil law, and the written intent of the deceased while she was still alive. If the nephew is still in contact with the nifteres, he should direct her to contact the judge in the same way she contacted him!

    toolee
    toolee
    13 years ago

    When that ghost shows up again try getting the lottery numbers.

    Tzi_Bar_David
    Tzi_Bar_David
    13 years ago

    I really don’t understand this…whoever the executor of the estate is the one to decide. If she went to the trouble to arrange and pay for this in advance five years ago, I am sure she also went to the trouble to prepare a Will.

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    13 years ago

    So he’s a liar, delusional or both. He has no shame.

    DRSLZ
    DRSLZ
    13 years ago

    Maye the son had this dream…Why do some insist on being so cynical?

    enlightened-yid
    enlightened-yid
    13 years ago

    The guy should open up a Kabalah business with Whoopi Goldberg because she also communicates with ghosts and has a Jewish last-name. I remember the time when every crackpot rabbi claimed that were neshomas talking through people and fish. Anyone remember those doctored tapes of some spooky voices and a woman rolling around on the floor? LOL

    Just another nut who feels anointed to have his wishes granted trampling the legal will that his geat-aunt prepared before her death. He is the only reason why her soul is not resting. He is the one keeping her in a freezer for months. No sane judge will recklessly disregard basic rules to civil law and contacts. The lady did everything to the full letter of the law to have her wishes granted. A Beth Din in Mea Sherim would disregard her will, but a court in the U.S. will not do that.

    13 years ago

    So now we talk to ghosts?

    GB_Jew
    GB_Jew
    13 years ago

    “105-year-old has spoken to him from beyond the grave asking to be buried instead,”

    What sloppy journalism! How can the woman speak “from beyond the grave” when her funeral (either kvura or cremation) has yet to take place?

    I realize this story was cut from the “New York Post”, but doesn’t someone sub-edit it before pasting it on VIN?