Jewish Funeral Program Template

Why many Jewish funerals have no program

Jewish tradition buries the dead quickly, often within a day or two, and it insists on simplicity. A plain wooden casket, simple white burial garments, a service without flowers or display. The equality of every person in death is the point. There is often no time to design and print anything, and in many communities, especially Orthodox ones, no expectation of it either.

So if you are deciding whether to make a program at all, know that skipping it is fully traditional. No guest will miss it. A family makes one for practical reasons, because many guests will not know the Hebrew, the order, or the customs, and a modest printed sheet can welcome them into the service instead of leaving them to guess.

The shape of the levaya and how it varies

The funeral service is called the levaya, which means accompanying, because the mitzvah is to accompany the dead to burial. It is short, usually well under an hour, whether it begins in a funeral home chapel, a synagogue, or at the graveside itself.

Details differ by community, but the service generally holds these elements. Before or during the service, immediate mourners perform kriah, the tearing of a garment or a black ribbon. Psalms are read, most often Psalm 23, and for a woman many communities add Eishet Chayil from Proverbs 31. The hesped, the eulogy, is given by the rabbi, by family, or by both. The memorial prayer El Malei Rachamim is chanted. Then the casket is accompanied in procession to the grave, where burial takes place and the Mourner's Kaddish is said. In many communities, those present help fill the grave, and guests form two rows, a shurah, for the mourners to pass through as words of comfort are spoken.

Practice varies by movement, and none of the differences are a ranking. Orthodox funerals hold closest to traditional form. Burial is prompt, the casket remains closed, the service is spare, and a printed program is uncommon, though a Kaddish card is sometimes provided at the cemetery. Conservative funerals follow the traditional structure with some flexibility in language and participation, and a modest program is more common. Reform funerals allow the most adaptation, more English, music in some communities, and sometimes a delay of a day or two so distant family can arrive. Personal eulogies by family are common across all three, though who speaks, and for how long, is the rabbi's call with the family. Do not copy another family's program from a different community and assume it fits yours.

What a program can hold when you want one

Keep it to what guests actually need. The name in English and, if the family wishes, the Hebrew name. The dates. A few lines of order so guests know what is happening and roughly when. Then the texts guests are invited to join or follow.

Psalm 23 in English, and in Hebrew if your community will read it that way. The words of El Malei Rachamim in translation, so guests understand what is being chanted for the person they loved. And the Mourner's Kaddish printed in transliteration alongside the translation, because Kaddish is said aloud, and transliteration lets every guest who wishes to support the mourners actually join their voices. That single choice does more good than anything else on the page.

A simple program, in full

• Name, Hebrew name if desired, and dates
• A brief order, psalms, hesped, El Malei Rachamim, procession to the grave
• Psalm 23
• El Malei Rachamim in translation
• Mourner's Kaddish, transliterated with translation
• Shiva details on the back panel

Shiva details belong on the back

The most useful panel of a Jewish funeral program is the back, because it answers the question every guest leaves the cemetery asking. Where is shiva, and when may I come.

Print the shiva address, the days and visiting hours the family has set, and the times of any minyan services at the house, since guests who can help make the minyan are giving the mourners a real gift. If the family prefers no visits at certain hours, or is sitting shiva for fewer days, say so plainly. Families sometimes add a line about the meal of consolation or where charitable donations may be sent in the person's memory, which in Jewish practice takes the place flowers hold elsewhere.

Ask the rabbi before you print

Every community has its own minhag, its own custom, and the rabbi or the chevra kadisha will know exactly how this funeral will run. Before printing, ask the rabbi to look over the order, the texts you have chosen, and the transliteration of the Kaddish, since more than one transliteration style exists and the rabbi will have a preference.

This is a short conversation, and rabbis are glad to have it. It ensures the program serves the levaya rather than steering it, which is all a program should ever do.