TIBERIAS (dpa) – Any staunchly religious Jew who is planning to visit the historic town of Tiberias in the near future and who is also called Cohen would be better off revising his plans.
The main street of this busy tourist attraction is namely off- limits to anyone bearing the name Cohen or any of its derivatives, such as Kahan, Kahane or the Hebrew equivalent, Katz.
During recent construction work the town’s elders discovered that the main street runs through an old cemetery and according to strict Judaic rules, it is out of bounds to anyone who is called Cohen – provided he is very religious at the same time.
According to tradition, anyone bearing the name Cohen or any of its variations is a direct descendant of the high priests, the “kohanim”, who can trace their lineage back 3,000 years to Aaron, brother of Moses.
As members of this ancient caste of priests, they are even today subject to strict limitations, one of which is being forbidden to enter cemeteries regarded as impure. In addition, in Israel, where there is no civil marriage ceremony, these Cohens are not allowed to marry divorced women or those converted to Judaism.
The discovery of the cemetery underneath Tiberias’ main street is not a major find – there are after all plenty of side streets – but city fathers discovered during digging work that the side streets are also built on top of old graves and these are also forbidden ground, or “not kosher” for the tens of thousands of Cohens in Israel.
Cohens are only allowed to visit graveyards when a member of their family is to be buried.
In order to avoid banning Cohens from the city centre altogether town mayor Benjamin Kiriati decided to bring the Cohens into the town centre on a new route. A parallel street to the main thoroughfare is to be built in order to allow Cohens easier access to the town.
To ensure no more tombs trip up the kohanim the parallel street will be built on flat concrete bridges over any burial places. This procedure will cost many million shekels more than planned but for the Cohens, the extra costs are justified.
Problems with old Jewish cemeteries do not only occur in Israel. At the beginning of the 90s, in the northern German port of Hamburg, a years-long controversy flared up over a planned shopping centre in the working-class district of Altona, which was to be built on top of old Jewish graves. Only after tough and lengthy negotiations, to which the Chief Rabbinate was also a party, could the go-ahead be given for the shopping mall to be built.
In Tiberias, groups of ultra-orthodox Jews have also announced resistance. Basically, they want to prevent any street being built on top of Jewish graves and they also want the existing road to be raised over known locations of graves so the dead may rest in peace.
Although Tiberias’ cemetery controversy solely affects Cohens who follow strict religious beliefs, a further religious law affects any Jew bearing the name. Anyone called Cohen, a name common in Israel, is from the outset limited in his choice of marriage partner.
Israeli rabbis refuse to marry any Cohen to a woman who has been divorced, which in modern-day Israel is becoming increasingly more common, or to a women converted from any other religion to Judaism. Nor even for Chaim Cohen, the former supreme justice of the country, was an exception made by the strict religious functionaries. Cohen was forced to marry his divorced partner in a civil ceremony abroad.
British scientists have also found out that Cohens, Kahanes and Katzes are actually different to other Jews. British and Israeli scientists examined 306 members of the kohanim, the ancient caste of priests, and discovered that they all possess certain genetic details which set them apart from other Jews.
According to Oxford University’s David Goldstein, this is a direct result of the tradition whereby the status of kohanim priest has been passed from father to son ever since the building of the first Jewish temple, 3,000 years ago.
