Based on Genesis 47:29, ensuring the proper care for and burial of the dead is known in the rabbinic tradition as the “kindness of truth” (ḥesed shel emet), since one cannot expect to receive anything in return, even a gesture thanks, from the deceased. The organization Chesed Shel Emes—which takes its name from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the phrase—provides ritual purification and burial for Jewish dead without means or without synagogue affiliations. In a photo essay, Mark Abramson shows how COVID-19 has affected the group’s mission. Isadora Kosofsky writes:

On December 20, a Palestinian waited in a wooded area near a Jewish village in northern Israel in the hope of encountering a victim. Soon enough he spotted Esther Horgan walking home from an evening jog and killed her by beating her with a rock. He later told the police that he did the deed to avenge the death of Kamal Abu Wa’er, a terrorist in Israeli custody. Itamar Marcus explains: