Midwood, NY – Strange Woman Buried in Family’s Plot Next to Dad

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    File photo Shimon GifterMidwood, NY – Brooklyn family was devastated to find their long-dead father lying next to a stranger at Washington Cemetery — in the same plot their mother purchased years ago for her future resting place.

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    Klara Tranis, 84, spent $3,200 on side-by-side plots in Section 5 of the city’s largest Jewish cemetery in Midwood back in 1987, when her beloved husband of 42 years, Wolf Tranis, died at 59.

    The couple had two daughters, and came to America in 1978 where Wolf, a businessman, and Klara, a housewife, settled in Midwood.

    The family visited Wolf’s grave regularly and as space at the cemetery dwindled, Klara’s plot looked like a tiny island of open grass in a sea of headstones.

    Until last year, when a relative visited the grave and made a disturbing discovery, said daughter Ludmila Kushnir.

    “She said, ‘I think your father’s got a girlfriend,’ ” Kushnir recalled.

    Confused, Kushnir and her sister rushed to the cemetery to find a woman named Nina Kholodenko buried in the plot meant for their mom.

    The cemetery denied responsibility for the grave error, claiming the plots are managed by various Jewish burial societies. Immigrants formed the societies decades ago, buying up plots and administering them for members.

    “The black market in these graves is tremendous,” a government source told The Post. “It never stops.”

    The family asked the cemetery to exhume Kholodenko, a 63-year-old Sheepshead Bay breast-cancer victim, and return the plot. Instead, said family lawyer Eric Rothstein, the cemetery offered only to dig up Wolf and move him.

    Kushnir and her family last week sued the cemetery, as well as the funeral home, I.J. Morris, of Brooklyn, and the society that originally sold the plots.

    A relative of Kholodenko claimed they bought the space from a woman who had originally bought it for herself and that the funeral home found no record of another owner.


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    10 Comments
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    ALLAN
    ALLAN
    12 years ago

    This is a serious violation of trust and probably of the law as well. NYS has a Cemetery Board which regulates and governs activities at all cemeteries. For Washington Cemetery to claim innocense is ridiculous. Different organizations may own plots but the cemetery must keep records of that ownership and of who finally gets put to rest and at which location. The family involved will have an interesting legal battle ahead and their rights should be protected.

    shooki
    shooki
    12 years ago

    Its crazy what’s going on and its true that the cemeteries are so corrupt. my grandfather had a very similar story a few years ago. He paid for one and when my grandmother suddenly passed away he was shocked to discover someone else buried there. It still bothers him much but there was nothing he can do. And he didn’t get money back either. We gotta do something to improve the system.

    ProminantLawyer
    ProminantLawyer
    12 years ago

    Land use rules are as old as the hills. I don’t think the elderly decedant took a girl friend; I think someone imposed upone thems.

    Shmuely
    Shmuely
    12 years ago

    I believe the Halacha would be that the graves cannot be exhumed. In any event, if an outer-container (vault) is not used or required in the cemetery, exhumation would be a difficult proceedure depending upon what state of decomposition the remains is in. If an actual burial vault was used it would make a dis-interment/re-interment much easier.

    Not sure I understand why they are suing the funeral home. The Morris firm has been around for years and has a very good reputation.I don’t think they involve themselves with the sales of graves at any cemetery.

    Seems to me that anyone purchasing gravespace needs to obtain an “original” deed for the gravespace or in the event the purchaser is the first “owner” an original deed should be issued in their name.
    If the Tranis family holds a deed for those graves then they have a very good case to sue someone. I would think whomever originally sold the Tranis’ the graves would be scrambling to offer another gravespace as an option. Unfortunately, the Tranis’ may not end up near each other.
    A real shanda.

    JohnSmith
    JohnSmith
    12 years ago

    I think this cemetary needs to be closed for good, very overcraweded!

    Benny
    Benny
    12 years ago

    Can you imagine – you go to Eretz Isroel for few weeks, and when you come back – you discover your neidbour buried his grandmother in your backyard, and now you have another neigbour that you can not move out!