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If a Jew wishes to visit a grave at a Christian cemetery (say the grave of a patrilineal grandparent), is it permissible? Does it matter if it is a mostly unadorned cemetery vs. one with pictures of Christian saints or other iconography?

mbloch
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Mike
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    The Vilna Gaon was opposed to visiting even Jewish cemeteries. – Loewian May 28 '15 at 00:28
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    Why would the halacha be different for an observant Jew versus a nonobservant Jew? – Double AA May 28 '15 at 02:11
  • IIRC, didn't several notable rabbis visit Arlington National Cemetery on various occasions, such as when a notable president died? – DanF May 28 '15 at 02:26
  • Is the cemetery on church grounds? – Shoel U'Meishiv May 28 '15 at 07:29
  • If a no Tzadik's grave is accessible, the Poskim recommend going to any Jewish cemetery to daven. (Some even say that if no Jewish cemetery is available, one should go to the outside of a non Jewish cemetery, as just going to any cemetery reminds us that we will not live forever, and that we better start doing Teshuva before it's too late. However, it is best not to daven at the grave of a Rasha, an evil person.) http://halachafortodaycom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/archives-elul-tishrei-yomim-noraim.html – cham May 28 '15 at 09:22
  • @cham Very interesting. I had never heard that. – Mike May 28 '15 at 12:49
  • @DanF Visiting the funeral of a president is a VASTLY different question of politics, much like how we treat nochrim differently than the de facto requirements of halacha to avoid eivah. – Isaac Kotlicky May 28 '15 at 17:44
  • @IsaacKotlicky this may be true. I don't know the details. The OP posted a general question regarding any Jew visiting any Christian cemetery. The principles that you mentioned might be part of your answer. – DanF May 28 '15 at 18:12
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    A number of years ago there was a high profile murder in Brooklyn of a black ger. his family wanted him buried, if I recall correctly, in his native Carribean country where no Jewish cemetaries existed---at least in that city. The man was a very well-liked member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. The "problem" was resolved by securing permission to symbolically build a fence on a plot on cemetery grounds. Although this situation may not address the OP's issue precisely, it does suggest that a Jew may pass through a non-Jewish cemetery without any halakhic difficulty. – JJLL Aug 17 '15 at 04:40

1 Answers1

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yeshiva.co answers the question whether a Jew can attend a non-Jew's funeral

A Jew can enter a non Jewish cemetery and attend a non Jewish funeral. (see Bava Metziah 114a). The only prohibition is to enter a church if the ceremony takes place there.

chabad.org adds

According to Jewish law, there is generally no issue with attending a non-Jewish funeral or visiting a non-Jewish cemetery.

If there are pictures, one should not behave in any way that leads to concerns of avoda zara (e.g., prosternating).

mbloch
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