In order to assure a timely Jewish burial and to resolve issues of marital status, the Orthodox Union is acting as liaison between the families of Jewish victims of Swissair Flight 111 and the authorities. Rabbi Moshe Krupka, Director of the Union’s Synagogue Services Division, and Alan Miller, a Union Vice President whose father, Joseph K. Miller, was murdered in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, are helping the Swissair 111 families provide vital information to the RCMP that will help with identification, such as dental records and descriptions of what the victims were wearing at the time of the crash.

Upon request the Union is also attending to the religious and pastoral needs of the families, including providing books on bereavement.

The Orthodox Union is grateful to Nova Scotia Provincial Chief Medical Examiner John Butt for his cooperation with Rabbi Krupka and Mr. Miller and his sensitivity to issues of Jewish halacha.

Dr. Butt also approved the Union’s invitation to Dr. Jay Levinson, an expert on victim identification for the Israeli police, to assist with victim identification. Dr. Levinson’s knowledge enables him to deal with the complex halachic questions involved in the identification process. (Dr. Levinson was also involved in the Pan Am 103 identification process.)

The Union extends its gratitude to New York Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco for facilitating our role as liaison with Chief Medical Examiner Butt. We also want to acknowledge and thank the Jewish community of Halifax for reaching out to the families and providing food and support in the true spirit of klal Yisrael, the brotherhood of all Jews.

"We hope that through these efforts the Jewish victims can be brought to k’vurat Yisrael, a proper Jewish burial, and that the families of the victims can attain a sense of closure to this tragedy," said Rabbi Raphael B. Butler, the Union’s Executive Vice President.

"We applaud the Swissair and Delta bereavement group for their sensitivity in comforting the anguished and bereaved families and for the active support of the special needs of all the victims."