For 18 long days in Florida, the Spiegel family waited for news of their beloved matriarch, Judy. But the Spiegel family was forced to wait what seemed like an eternity after the collapse. The seafront community of Surfside has had a robust Orthodox Jewish community for decades. But the brute facts of the tower’s collapse made many Jewish laws and customs about preparing bodies for burial and the period of mourning challenging to follow. Still, those rules, improvised where necessary, helped bring comfort to dozens of families coping with nearly unspeakable grief.

Source: New York Times August 10, 2021 09:00 UTC