Author
Israel’s burial policy is generous and exceptional: it guarantees every citizen a permanent grave near their place of residence, funded by the state. However, this policy is not sustainable. Given the expected surge in the elderly population in the coming decades, the annual number of deaths is projected to rise from approximately 45,000–50,000 today to 100,000 by 2044 and to 200,000 by the 2080s. This trend necessitates a fundamental change in burial practices in Israel, including the immediate adoption of methods that allow for a higher number of burials per dunam of land and amendments to the legislation that guarantees burial close to the deceased’s place of residence. In the absence of a coherent policy, Israel is likely to face a severe shortage of burial land and the emergence of massive “cities of the dead” in the country’s central region.
A new study by Prof. Alex Weinreb, Chair of the Demography Area and Research Director at the Taub Center, shows that Israel is facing an unprecedented wave of mortality, driven by the combination of rapid population growth and the aging of the baby-boomer generation born in the State’s early decades. These trends call for a rethinking of burial practices in Israel.
The aging of the baby-boom generation will lead to a dramatic surge in the number of deaths
The annual growth rate in the number of deaths, which in recent years has averaged about 1.1%, is expected to rise to approximately 3.85% per year in the coming decades — from roughly 45,000–50,000 deaths annually today to more than 100,000 by the mid-2040s. In fact, over the next 26 years (2024–2050), more people will die in Israel than have died since the founding of the State through the end of 2023 (about 2.18 million compared with 2.12 million). This surge will continue — and intensify. By the late 2070s, the annual number of deaths is expected to exceed 200,000, and, during the 2090s, it is projected to surpass 250,000 per year.
Annual number of deaths, including projections to 2050, and the growth rate in that annual number
Planning failure and lack of systemic preparedness
The dramatic increase in the number of deaths is colliding with the reality of a burial policy that is uniquely generous — and with a planning failure. Among high-income countries, Israel is the only one that guarantees every citizen state-funded burial near their place of residence, and that the grave will remain as it is, in perpetuity.
Although over the years the State Comptroller has addressed this issue repeatedly, and, in 2024, stated unequivocally that the State of Israel is not prepared to deal with the future shortage of burial land, the Comptroller’s numerical estimates are an underestimate. The Taub Center study points to a gap of about 33% between the Comptroller’s estimates and the number of graves that will be required by the end of the century. This gap stems from ignoring the effects of changes in the population’s age structure and positive net migration. Moreover, the Ministry of Religious Services — the body responsible for all matters of burial in Israel, including regulation, planning, and budgeting — acknowledged that it does not have mortality forecasts or up-to-date data on the amount of available burial land nationwide. As a result of this lack of information, planning remains fragmented, local only, and mostly short-term. Even in the Tel Aviv and Central Districts, the Yarkon and Barkat (Ganey Ad) cemeteries, which were meant to provide a solution for decades to come, are expected to reach full capacity as early as 2035 — decades before the planned date.
Given the expected surge in the annual number of deaths, maintaining the current mix of burial methods would require a cumulative allocation of about 3,327 dunams for burial through 2050. Moreover, under the law requiring burial close to the place of residence, the main demand for burial land will be in the central region, where land reserves of the necessary scale simply do not exist.
An efficient solution to the impasse: reviving the ancient “Land of Israel burial” method as a response to the crisis
For most of Israel’s history, the most common and preferred burial method has been “field burial” (individual burial in the ground), which is the least efficient in terms of land use but the cheapest in terms of cemetery infrastructure investment. As land scarcity has worsened and the population has grown rapidly, the government has compelled burial authorities to shift gradually to “dense burial” methods, including burial in multi-story structures (“high-rise burial”) and niche burial — burial in niches carved one above the other within a wall (“Sanhedrin burial”). It is important to emphasize that solutions adopted in other countries, such as cremation, do not constitute a real alternative in Israel for cultural and religious reasons. This reality has created a planning impasse that requires a solution rooted in tradition.
The study proposes several alternatives, foremost among them the renewed adoption of the method of “bone collecting” (Land of Israel burial) — an ancient Jewish burial practice that was common from the First Temple period through the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud. Under this method, the deceased is buried in the ground, and after a year the bones are transferred to an ossuary in a family compound — a stone or clay box used for collecting and preserving the family’s bones. This method enables burial at an unprecedented density of about 3,000 people per dunam, 10 times that of standard field burial (about 300 graves per dunam) and twice that of the dense-burial methods commonly used today (up to 1,500 graves per dunam). Land of Israel burial is therefore the most efficient method for conserving land. However, given the complexity of the process, it is difficult to estimate the cost of burial using this method, and the study therefore assigns it a cost between niche burial and burial in underground tunnels — between NIS 5,300 and NIS 20,300. This compares with field burial, which, as noted, is the cheapest method but the least efficient in terms of land use.
The cost per grave for dense-burial methods (such as the burial towers at the Yarkon cemetery) or for underground tunnels (as at Har HaMenuchot) is five times higher than standard field burial (about NIS 18,000–NIS 20,300 compared with NIS 3,800), but it is four times more efficient in terms of land consumption.
Another low-cost, efficient alternative proposed in the study is to amend the law requiring burial near the place of residence and move toward large burial complexes in the periphery, especially in the south. It is also possible to change the economic incentives for burial and require payment from those who request field burial.
Strategic planning combined with cultural change — or massive “cities of the dead” in the Center
The paradox highlighted in the study is that because of a cultural-religious outlook, we devote to the dead one of the country’s most valuable and scarce resources. If strategic planning is not advanced toward a comprehensive, system-wide solution, Israel will move toward a reality in which large parts of its territory become “cities of the dead” that take over valuable land in the country’s central region, as well as forests and agricultural areas.
The best solution requires a profound cultural change, centered on abandoning burial customs that developed under diaspora conditions and adopting a sustainable model rooted in ancient Jewish tradition: “Land of Israel burial.” This change, alongside amending the law that requires burial near the place of residence and changing the system of economic incentives, would significantly improve the state’s ability to cope with the expected grave shortage.