Growing and maintaining a collection can be a fulfilling and meaningful hobby for many. People collect things such as coins, stamps, art, rare books, comic books and baseball cards.
Then there is Isaac Pollak of New York City who collects chevra kadisha artifacts. That’s right — objects from Jewish sacred burial societies, many often used in tahara — the ritual cleansing — and dressing of dead bodies in accordance with Jewish law. Not your typical items to be collected.
Pollak has been been performing taharas with the chevra kadisha of Cong. Kehillath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for 45 years and that’s how long he’s been fascinated with and collecting objects related to this realm of Jewish practice.
Pollack became an expert in such things and has lectured around the world including at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, University of Vienna and University of Amsterdam. He co-curated an exhibit at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, titled “Dressed for Eternity: the History of Jewish Shrouds.” He has also shared his collection with the National Library of Israel.
The objects in Pollak’s collection shed light into the history of these sacred burial societies throughout the centuries. A pinkes is a ledger of a Jewish community in which births, marriages and deaths were recorded. Many chevra kadishas had pinkesim which included the names of their members. Pollak has amassed quite a few of these pinkesim in varying conditions.
The rules of chevra kadisha membership were strict, he says. “For example, you have to be married to be a member in some communities, or you have to go to minyan every day to be a member.”
Not everyone was qualified or cut out to serve in a chevra kadisha. After all, handling dead bodies is not something everyone can or want to do, but being involved is considered a tremendous mitzvah, perhaps the ultimate mitzvah — doing something for someone who cannot pay you back.
Historically, association with a chevra kadisha was considered prestigious.
Pollak’s collection includes medallions worn by chevra kadisha members to show their status. One, dating back to 1858 Boston, says “CONDUCTOR,” denoting that person’s job as the leader of the procedures. Another 1858 medallion says “TREAS” for treasurer.
Those who were not qualified or able to prepare a body for burial but wanted to be associated with a chevra kadisha would participate by donating money or dedicating silver ritual objects used in such procedures.
Pollak displays a rare silver goblet dated from 1601 in Dusseldorf, Germany, but it was made in Cologne, Germany. He explains that Jews were not allowed to live in Cologne, so they went from Dusseldorf to Cologne to have the goblet commissioned, but they had to leave at nightfall as they were not allowed to be there overnight as if they were residing there.
A larger silver goblet from 1810 had the names of the chevra kadisha members engraved on it, and when new members came in, the names were erased and the goblet was re-silverplated and new names here etched on it.
Many of Pollak’s items fall under the concept of hiddur mitzvah — elevating a mitzvah with beautified objects, such as silver candlesticks for Shabbat or an illuminated Haggadah for Passover. An example in Pollak’s collection is an ornate silver comb from 1884 used to comb the hair of the deceased in preparation for burial.
“Today we use plastic combs that are a dozen for $1.50 at Target,” he says.
He also has implements that were used to clean fingernails and toenails.
Pollak’s oldest artifact, dating from 1492, is a large vessel from Kanisha, a little town on the border of Romania and Hungary, used in the commemoration of Zayin Adar (10th day of the Hebrew month Adar), an important day for chevra kadishas worldwide. It is believed to be the date on which Moses was born and when he died.
Pollak says the vessel “did not start out as a chevra kadisha object, but a hundred years after it was made, somebody bought it, and had the names of the Tanisha chevra kadisha members engraved on it and donated it.”
Pollak says that the Jewish Museum of Budapest has items from Kanisha, but not quite as elaborate as the vessel he has. “This is unique. It has lions similar to the coat of arms of Prague on it.”
Through the years, Pollak has shown his collection in different museum exhibits, but not so much these days. Displaying these objects exposes him to claims that they belong elsewhere.
“I displayed a pinkes from an old community in Latvia. The government of Latvia claimed it was part of Latvia’s heritage and got Homeland Security to take it.
“Now, I had a legitimate bill of sale proving that I bought it in 1984, but they claimed that even if I bought it legitimately, they had a right to it. I offered to make a wonderful copy on heavy-duty paper to display, and the original would go to the National Library of Israel, where people from all over the world can study it.
“I went to the museum in Latvia and it’s not a Jewish museum; it’s a general museum. They have one dusty, dirty, filthy corner with a couple of Judaica items in it. Nobody has touched or cleaned it in 25 years.
“They said no, they wanted it back, so it’s in litigation right now. Since then, I’ve been a little shy of showing my collection.”
Professionally, Pollak is semi-retired from his own international marketing company which means he has travelled a great deal for his work. But when he is home in Manhattan, he is a devoted leader of his chevra kadisha, available to perform his duties whenever needed, whether it is at midnight in order to prepare a body before it is shipped to Israel or Florida for burial, or early in the morning if the burial will take place the same day as the death occurred.
For Pollak, his service in the chevra kadisha is an important mitzvah, considered “chesed shel emet, a deed exceeding almost every other deed. In fact, the Jerusalem Talmud mentions that escorting and helping with the dead is more important than learning Torah.
“Nobody comes back and tells you, ‘Thank you for putting my shrouds or cleaning my body.”
As the head of his chevra kadisha, Pollak has encountered some very sad situations, including a 16-year-old who drowned, a 30-year-old who died of AIDS, a 40-year-old heir to a Sephardic rabbinic dynasty who came to the US for treatment for a blood disease, and an eight-month-old little boy who had been abandoned by both parents.
“When I think of them, all I can say is that one’s heart goes out, one has no words or explanations, one cries with the families, and one feel’s G-d’s pain — as G-d says in Psalm 91, ‘I am with him in distress.’
“But at the same time, it makes us appreciate life all that much more, and we — all of us doing G-d’s work, all who serve as part of the chevra kadisha, are better off for it. Despite the pain and sadness we may encounter, we get so much more than we give.”
© IJN 2025