Your Email:

Friend's Email:

Note: (optional)

Subject:

Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18297/full/18297/son-honors-father-s-last-wishes-burying-ashes-in-prague/ <br /><br /> <b>Son honors father’s last wishes, burying ashes in Prague</b> <br /> Friday, August 16, 2002 | by <p>MAGNUS BENNETT </p> <br /><br /><p>PRAGUE—A Florida businessman has fulfilled the last wish of his late father by laying his ashes to rest in a Jewish cemetery in Prague.<br /><br /> Gary Teplitsky, from Key West, overcame a series of bureaucratic hurdles to bring the ashes of his father, Irving, to the Czech capital exactly a year after the retired lawyer's death.<br /><br /> Teplitsky, who owns a coffee-roasting company called Baby's Coffee, said his 80-year-old father had asked to be buried in Prague because of his wartime experiences.<br /><br /> As a young sergeant, his father had been with the American Third Army as it liberated parts of the former Czechoslovakia under Gen. George Patton.<br /><br /> "My father didn't talk a lot about his wartime experiences in Czechoslovakia, but he did say he couldn't stand the suffering people went through there," Teplitsky said after the funeral last Friday in the Jewish cemetery in Izraelska Street.<br /><br /> "His last wish was: Take me there."<br /><br /> Teplitsky and his family agonized over the request, particularly because it conflicted with Jewish burial laws.<br /><br /> "To fulfill his request, there was no other way than to arrange for my father's cremation. We knew it was breaking the rules, but we decided we were going to get him over here. Of all the things I have gone through in my life, this was by far the most difficult thing I have had to do."<br /><br /> Teplitsky praised American Airlines and customs officials for their discretion in transporting the ashes.<br /><br /> "The ashes were screened by security but no one asked to look inside the box where they were. I would have been extremely upset if anyone had opened it."<br /><br /> Officials with the Prague Jewish community agreed to let the ashes be buried in a special section of the cemetery, and a senior cemetery official presided over the ceremony.<br /><br /> "There was no official rabbi present because of the circumstances," Teplitsky said.<br /><br /> A Prague Jewish community official who did not wish to be named said the funeral "did not exist" for the city's rabbinical office because Irving Teplitsky had been cremated. "Everyone knows it is breaking Jewish law but sometimes there is no other way," he said.<br /><br /> Irving Teplitsky, who was known as "I.T.," was born and raised in New York and had a long career as a lawyer, once representing screen and dancing legend Ginger Rogers.<br /><br /> He was a former member of the Reform Temple Sinai in Long Island, N.Y., and in his later years moved to Florida, first to Key West and then to Miami, where he died.</p> <p> </p>

Please enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below: