Australia, July 2 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement:

1. Andrew and Anna Berk survived the Holocaust. They died in the 1990s and are now buried in in the Rookwood Necropolis in Section 18E of Zone G, an area reserved and consecrated for the burial of people of the Jewish faith. Their daughter, Debby Karen Kollin, died on 30 April 2025.

2. The plaintiffs who represent the family of Debby Kollin ("the deceased") want her to be buried with her parents. The first defendant, the Metropolitan Memorial Parks Land Manager ("the Land Manager"), which administers the Rookwood Necropolis under the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act 2013 ("the CCA") has declined to allow her to be buried in Section 18E with them but submits to the order of the Court.

3. The Land Manager has consulted with the second defendant, the Sydney Chevra Kadisha ("the SCK"), an organisation founded to care for the burial needs of the Sydney Jewish community according to Jewish law. SCK has informed the Land Manager that burying the deceased in Section 18E, which is reserved only for Holocaust survivors and observant members of the Jewish faith, would be contrary to Jewish law. SCK says that it has not been shown evidence to establish the deceased was an observant member of Jewish faith and therefore she cannot be buried in Section 18E conformably with Jewish law.

4. The deceased's husband and the executor of her estate, Mr Robert Kollin, the first plaintiff and her brother Professor Victor Berk, commenced these proceedings against the Land Manager, to enforce a right of interment in a burial site within Section 18E, which they acquired in 2003 from a predecessor of the Land Manager and is enforceable against the Land Manager under the CCA.

5. A complicating factor is that the subject right of interment was acquired in 2004 not by the deceased but by her brother Victor for his then wife, Susie Berk, next to him and to his parents. The Court understands that Victor and Susie Berk are no longer married and that they both now want the right of interment to be transferred to the deceased. But before the deceased can be buried with her parents, the Land Manager must enable the transfer of the right of interment from Susie Berk to the estate of the deceased.

6. The matter came before the Court on an urgent basis in the Equity Duty list by Summons filed on the morning of Friday, 2 May 2025. The plaintiffs seek orders against the Land Manager for the specific performance of the transfer of the burial site known as allotment 561A in Zone 9 of Section 18E of Rookwood Necropolis from Victor Berk to her estate, so she can be buried in Lot 561A. The Summons also seeks an order that the Land Manager issue a Certificate under CCA s 65 confirming the right of her estate to have her buried in Lot 561A and an order under CCA s 67 for her interment.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1972e2296a6d8768d188244b)

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