Jewish organizations in London are demanding the dismissal of a coroner who customarily leaves the dead for a number of days before releasing them for burial and refuses to consider religious considerations of dignity of the dead, according to a JTA report.
Mary Hassell, the senior coroner at the St. Pancras coroner’s office in central London, told Jewish leaders in a letter that “no death will be prioritized in any way over any other because of the religion of the deceased or family.” She also said in the same letter to Jewish community leaders that she would no longer allow Jewish bodies to be held at a local Jewish funeral home, instead of the mortuary, to enable shemirah, or guarding by fellow Jews, until their burials.
She also has suggested members of her staff have been “bullied or intimidated” by Jewish community representatives calling to try to expedite burials.