Dying is an expensive business – today the average funeral costs 8,000 dollars.
A hundred years ago, Jewish immigrants to New York shared that financial burden by forming burial societies, where members paid small yearly dues to reserve a grave site near their loved ones.
Today, those 15,000 societies are in unregulated decline – or don’t exist at all.
The result is a growing black market where funeral directors can charge as much as they like for graves in Jewish cemeteries.
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