May a Jew be buried in a non-Jewish cemetery?

Question: For decades, I have put a lot of thought, energy, and financial commitment into environmental sustainability. Cemeteries, with their pristine, well-watered, always raked lawns, rub me the wrong way. I am hearing more about eco-friendly cemeteries where ground cover is not “maintained”, but allowed to return to nature. I’ve not heard of a Jewish cemetery that takes this approach. Why does it matter that a Jew be buried in a specifically Jewish cemetery? What would it mean for a Jew to choose to be buried in a non-Jewish cemetery?

Answer: There are no mitzvot more important than those concerning how we handle the end of life. Because of this, many customs have developed related to these issues. Before we address the specific question, however, let us briefly review the history of Jewish burial practices.

Jewish burial practices have developed over thousands of years, always prioritizing speed, simplicity, and dignity for the deceased. From the Bible through the rabbinic era and into modern times, communities have built structures—both physical and communal—to ensure every Jew is buried with honor.

Biblical Foundations

The first detailed burial in the Torah is Abraham’s purchase of the Cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah, establishing both family burial plots and the significance of burial in the earth. The Bible describes prompt burial, often on the same day, and opposes leaving a body exposed overnight, which later becomes a key halachic principle.

Rabbinic Era

During the Second Temple and Talmudic periods, burial in the ground and subsequent reburial of bones in ossuaries were common practices in the Land of Israel, alongside the development of laws related to mourning and ritual impurity. Rabbinic texts depict burial as a duty modeled after God’s way of burying Moses, and communities start to assume formal responsibility for burying the poor and abandoned.

Medieval Development

By around 1000 CE, documented communal Jewish cemeteries existed in Europe, and over the subsequent centuries, distinct walled Jewish cemeteries became standard. Chevra Kadisha (burial societies) emerged in medieval Spain and later in Ashkenazic communities, organizing taharah, shmirah, and funerals as a structured mitzvah of chesed shel emet.

Modern Era

From the 16th century onward, well-known Chevra Kadisha organizations like Prague’s formalized detailed minhagim, which still influence practice in many places today. In the 19th and 20th centuries, landsmanshaftn and Jewish funeral homes in Europe and North America helped institutionalize Jewish burial in the modern city, while Reform and other movements started to adapt some customs.

The question has two different parts. First, the question of the existence of Jewish “eco-friendly” or green cemeteries, and the second the question of whether it is permissible to bury in a non-Jewish cemetery [in order to use a green cemetery]. The answer to the first question is that there are indeed some green Jewish cemeteries in America. While few in number, the more desire for such facilities, the more they will open. A Google search brings up these examples:

• Garden of Remembrance (Clarksburg, MD): Certified by the Green Burial Council, offering sections without vaults, using natural landscaping.
• Mount Sinai Memorial Parks (Simi Valley, CA – “Teva”): Features natural stone markers, native plants, and no concrete liners.
• Baltimore Hebrew Congregation (BHC) (MD): Offers green burial in specific sections, aligning with tradition by forgoing embalming and using simple caskets.
• Morgan Oaks Preservation (CA): A dedicated space protecting landscapes for green Jewish burials.
• Sinai Memorial Chapel (CA): Manages the Gan Adamah, an exclusive green burial space at Eternal Home Cemetery.

There may be others around the country, and more research is needed.

Moving to the question of whether Jews can be buried in a non-Jewish cemetery, this is a question that has been dealt with in Jewish texts. A Jew is traditionally buried in a Jewish cemetery to remain part of the Jewish community even in death, to rest among one’s own people, and to ensure that the burial and future care of the grave follow Jewish law and custom. At the same time, there is growing Jewish interest in green and natural burial, and in many cases, those ecological values can be honored within a Jewish cemetery rather than by leaving the Jewish framework altogether.

What a “Jewish cemetery” means

A Jewish cemetery is not only a plot of land with Jewish symbols; it is a sacred communal institution, governed by norms about how the dead are treated and how the living relate to them. Among the core ideas are:

• Kedushat hamakom – the cemetery is consecrated as a place for Jewish dead, with rules about who is buried there, how graves are laid out, and how the grounds are treated.
• Community in death – being buried “among Jews” expresses that one’s identity and covenantal belonging do not end with death, but continue as part of Am Yisrael across generations.

Why burial among Jews matters

Classical sources do not spell out in a single verse, “you must be buried in a Jewish cemetery.” Still, over time, halachic and communal practice strongly favored Jews being buried apart from non‑Jews. Early authorities such as the Ran (Gittin-end of 5th chapter) and later decisors (the Shulchan Arukh Yoreh De’ah 362:5 discusses burying righteous Jews separate from wicked Jews.  Commentators extend this also to include not burying Jews together with non-Jews) explicitly rule that Jews are not to be buried intermixed with gentiles, and even permitted disinterment to move Jewish remains out of a non-Jewish cemetery. This reflects:

• Spiritual continuity – the sense that the dead share a spiritual destiny with their people, and the grave should reflect that shared journey.
• Communal responsibility—a Jewish chevra kadisha and Jewish cemetery ensure taharah, shmirah, prompt burial, and long-term maintenance according to halachah, rather than leaving these matters to systems shaped by other religious or secular norms.

Different movements interpret these norms differently: some liberal responsa emphasize that separate burial is a minhag rather than an absolute law, yet still regard Jewish burial space as an important communal value.

Green burial and Jewish values

Jewish burial fundamentally remains very “green”: rapid return to the earth, simple shrouds, a plain wood casket if used, and no embalming. Many environmental goals are achieved not by avoiding Jewish burial but by resisting modern cemetery practices that add concrete vaults, metal caskets, and chemically-treated lawns.

Today:

• Several Jewish cemeteries and congregations have established dedicated “green burial” sections featuring natural landscaping, no vaults, biodegradable shrouds or coffins, and minimal or natural markers.
• These efforts are often explicitly framed as expressions of bal tashchit (avoiding waste) and the mitzvah to let the body return naturally to the earth, not as a break from tradition but as a return to its original simplicity.

For someone troubled by manicured lawns and heavy resource use, working with a Jewish cemetery that offers or is open to a greener section can align ecological conscience with Jewish burial.

Choosing a non-Jewish / natural cemetery

If a Jew chooses burial in a non-Jewish green cemetery, the meaning of that choice will depend in part on their intention and in part on the community’s ability to care for the grave Jewishly.

From a traditional halachic perspective:

• Many Orthodox authorities would strongly discourage, and some outright forbid, a Jew’s being buried in a non-Jewish cemetery when a Jewish option exists, viewing it as a serious breach of communal and spiritual solidarity.
• There is particular concern about being actually intermixed, grave‑to‑grave, with non-Jewish burials, rather than in a clearly distinct Jewish section.

From a more liberal/pluralistic perspective:

• Some responsa emphasize that there is no explicit biblical or Talmudic prohibition on Jewish remains in the same cemetery as non-Jews, only on erasing Jewish distinctiveness. They permit mixed cemeteries or Jewish/non-Jewish family sections with appropriate boundaries and symbols.
• In interfaith families, many Jewish cemeteries already designate areas where Jewish and non-Jewish relatives can be buried nearby while maintaining an overall Jewish character through the ground and markers.

The main Jewish questions to ask about a non-Jewish “green” cemetery would be:

• Will the preparation of the body (no embalming, shrouds, etc.) be compatible with Jewish practice?
• Is there a way to create a recognizably Jewish section or row, with Jewish markers and ongoing Jewish ritual presence?
• How will this choice impact the ability of Jewish mourners—now and in future generations—to visit, say Kaddish, and feel that their loved one rests among their people?

A pastoral response

• Jewish tradition affirms both reverence for the dead and reverence for the earth, and classic Jewish burial—simple, biodegradable, unembalmed—is deeply consonant with ecological concern.
• The preference for a Jewish cemetery is not about pristine lawns; it is about remaining part of the Jewish people and under Jewish care even after death.
• In many communities, there are emerging options—green sections in Jewish cemeteries or Jewish sections within certified natural cemeteries—that allow a person to honor environmental commitments without severing that communal link.

If those options do not yet exist locally, the questioner’s values could become a catalyst: discussing with a synagogue, Chevra Kadisha, or cemetery association how to create a more natural, less resource-intensive Jewish burial area would itself be an act of tikkun that benefits both the community and the planet.