PHOENIX (CN) - Jewish Arizonans sued a cemetery over a new safety policy that prevents families from burying their loved ones according to Jewish law and customs.
Paradise Memorial Gardens, a Scottsdale cemetery with a section dedicated to Jewish burials, stopped lowering caskets in the presence of mourners after raising safety concerns about uneven ground near gravesites. Because Jewish tradition calls for mourners to witness the casket being lowered and help cover it with soil, the policy forces families to choose between burial alongside relatives and following their religious beliefs.
Three Jewish residents who purchased plots for their own burials filed a class action Friday, accusing the cemetery of consumer fraud and breach of contract by selling the plots with the implied understanding they would receive traditional Jewish burials.
Plaintiffs Janet Blinder, Lisa Singer and Gerald Levy each bought plots at Paradise Memorial Gardens more than a decade ago. They say they learned of the policy, adopted in February 2025, only after another Jewish family was denied a traditional burial for two daughters.
Cindy Carpenter purchased five burial plots for $50,000 after her daughter Chelsie died of cancer in November 2025, unaware the policy had changed. At Chelsie's funeral, mourners were allowed to watch the casket being lowered, but only from behind a rope about 20 feet away.
When her other daughter, Cortney, died in January, the family was required to sign a graveside services contract that included a handwritten note stating the casket would not be lowered until the family had completely left the cemetery grounds.
Alongside her signature, Cindy Carpenter wrote: "I object to this awful policy." Her husband Jim wrote: "I acknowledge your policy and strongly object to the policy."
Carpenter asked to watch the lowering from inside a building, but was denied, according to the class action.
The plaintiffs also claim that the policy has been discriminatorily enforced against Jewish mourners.
"Specifically, since the policy change was implemented, non-Jewish individuals have continued to have funeral attendees present graveside as the casket is lowered into the ground during burial services. Jewish individuals, however, are prohibited from doing so."
Since the Carpenter funerals, the plaintiffs say they have spent time and money seeking religious and legal advice on how to address the policy change. The cemetery offered refunds worth only 7% of the original purchase price. Blinder says she asked Paradise Memorial Gardens to allow her husband's remains to be moved to a nearby cemetery so she could eventually be buried beside him in accordance with Jewish tradition, but the request was denied.
The plaintiffs seek to represent anyone who purchased a plot before Feb. 14, 2025, and who, for religious reasons, intends for mourners to remain present while a casket is lowered during a funeral service.
Each plot agreement signed to consummate a sale states: "No other terms or conditions, and no amendments shall bind either party unless the same are reduced to writing and signed by the purchaser and seller." By enacting the policy change without consulting plot owners, the plaintiffs say the cemetery violated the plain language of those agreements.
In 1989, Ahavat Torah Congregation, a conservative Jewish Synagogue, established a section within the cemetery dedicated to Jewish burials that follows traditional conservative Jewish burial customs.
The plaintiffs say that by creating a dedicated Jewish section, the cemetery represented to consumers that it would accommodate and respect Jewish funeral practices.
Moreover, Arizona Administrative Code sections R4-12-301 and R4-12-302 require funeral service providers to "abstain from conduct that could disrupt funeral services or cause injury to the decedent's family; and make reasonable efforts to cooperate with religious customs of the decedent's family."
The plaintiffs bring actions under the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act, breach of contract and breach of implied covenant of good faith. They ask a state judge to declare the policy illegal and order the cemetery to revoke it. They also request damages for the time and money they've spent on legal and religious counsel.
Paradise Memorial Gardens did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: Courthouse News Service
