Cemeteries, hospitals and museums in Pittsburgh area

Cemeteries

The general rule for cemeteries is to avoid the streets that run alongside them. Often there are graves close to the fence, and trees with sechachos or peraos that cover the graves and extend to the street. A good example is the Homewood cemetery. On S Dallas, there is a section from Woodwell St to Dalzell Pl that has some graves close to the fence and trees that spread across the graves and the street. In addition, some of the trees then interlock, especially in summertime, with trees outside the cemetery across the street. This creates a larger canopy.

On the other side of the street (S Dallas), alongside the Smithfield cemetery, there are some trees near Alderson.

Along Alderson the cemetery has a couple of trees that seem to form a canopy over graves and the sidewalk. However, the other side of the street is not affected.

On Forbes avenue, the section alongside the Smithfield cemetery is clear of trees. The section alongside the Homewood cemetery has trees. There are some mausoleums near the wall.

On Willard St there seem to be no graves near the street.

It should be noted that both of these cemeteries accept Jews for burial. They are administered by the same organization, which also administers Allegheny cemetery. In addition, Homewood has two sections set aside for Jews. The Star of David section is for non-denominational Jews and their spouses. The Chabad section is for Chabad.

The other major cemetery in the Squirrel Hill area is Calvary, on Hazelwood Ave. Small parts of it abut the road, and there do not seem to be graves near these fences. The cemetery continues around the corner to Browns Hill Rd. However, there seem to be no graves in the vicinity of those trees. It is safer to cross the street.

There is a tiny churchyard near there, on Beechwood Blvd at the corner of Federal Hill St and back to Saline St which is the graveyard of the Simon Girty Historic settlement. There are trees on the Beechwood side and on Federal Hill St. Depending on the time of year, these could extend their canopy across the street as well.

Next to Children’s hospital, there are two adjoining large cemeteries. St Mary’s and Allegheny. Caution should be practiced when walking alongside the walls and fences.

In the upper hill, there is a cemetery called Minersville, bounded by a church, Vancroft St, Shawnee St and Lyon St, all of which have trees covering the graves and the street.

St Peters Lutheran cemetery is to the east of Washington Blvd, on Lemington Ave. There might be old graves near the street. The cemetery is bounded by Lemington Ave, Highland Dr/Leech Farm Rd, and Wiltsie street. A few small streets end in cul-de-sacs at the cemetery boundaries.

Downtown there is the old cemetery. It is bounded by two churches, the Episcopal and the First Presbyterian. The streets are Sixth Ave, Wood St Oliver Ave and Smithfield St. There are no trees that overhang the street at present. This can, of course change. Of greater concern is the fact that the original cemetery covered the entire block. It was cleared and reburied elsewhere, with a few “important” graves remaining, for development. Unfortunately, we have no absolute guarantee that all the graves were removed. There are buildings over the old cemetery, including, for example, the Embassy Suites. Since the graves may be assumed to have been those of nochrim, and it is a safek, doubt, whether any were left behind, and it is a reshus harabim, public domain, there might be room for leniency. However, there was a chazakah, presumption of the existence of tum’ah at one point. Furthermore, there are issues with tefusah shel mais, grave dirt. It is possible that the structure of the buildings has spaces of a tefach creating an ohel chotzaitz.

In Monroeville, at the Parkway exit to Business 22, across the other side of the Parkway, there is Beulah Christian preschool. This is built over the site of the old Beulah cemetery.

In Oakland there is a similar situation with regard to the old Oakland Evangelical Lutheran Burial Ground. This cemetery was located right where the parking lot is now located, on Aliquippa behind the VA Hospital. It was also dug up and reburied elsewhere, for the development of the University of Pittsburgh. The hope is that all the graves were removed, unless we know otherwise. However, the same issues apply. They are also considered kivrei nochrim. In this case, it is not so simple, since there might be open areas with no structures built over them. They would not have an ohel chotzaitz.

On the North Side, in Troy Hill, there is a baseball field, Gardner Field, built on the site of Troy Hill Cemetery and Catholic Grave Yard. This site stretches to Lowrie St, including the whole of Herman St. Further up Lowrie St, the 1700 block sits on the site of an old graveyard. Also on Lowrie is the Voegtly cemetery, which is the old German cemetery expanded.

There are quite a few old cemeteries on the North Side that have since been developed. You can check the old maps at this site:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=63f24d1466f24695bf9dfc5bf6828126

Outside of the local areas, there are many cemeteries. The rule of thumb is to use caution. Try to avoid adjacent streets, especially if there are trees.

If you drive through, many poskim maintain that a wagon (or car) can be considered a chatzitza, as long as one does not stick part of his body out of it. If there is an ohel overhead, such as a tree, the windows should be shut to prevent the tum’ah entering. If they are kept shut, the principle of sof tum’ah latzais, (ve’ain sof tum’ah likanais) keeps the tum’ah out.

Museums

Carnegie Museums of Natural History and Art are two museums that are integrated in one building. Therefore, when visiting the Museum of Art, one is really in the same building as the Museum of Natural History.

The Egypt Hall in the Natural History museum has displays of human remains. There are mummies and a complete skeletal body that has some skin and flesh still attached. The display cases are closed, but there seems to be a way to access them from behind, presumably for maintenance. As such, it is unclear whether they are a kever sasum or an ohel. Either way, a kohain entering that hall is in an ohel. The hall has doors that swing shut automatically. Thus, the hall is closed most of the time. It only opens to the hallway and stairway when people enter and leave. Therefore, one could say that since the doors are closed, there is a chatzitza. The displays are presumed to be permanent, at least enough to consider the rule of sof tum’ah latzais not to apply here. The other halls and displays in that museum do not have human remains.

However, in the main lobby, just outside the Museum of Art, there is a diorama called Lions Attacking Dromedary. In this dramatic scene, a camel-rider is fighting off a lion attack. The head of the rider is known to be a complete human skull, dressed up and painted. The display case is closed on all sides. Presumably there is a way to open it for maintenance, but there is no obvious door. This raises the question of whether there is a posaiach tefach, or it is a kever sasum. It would appear that the display renders the entire lobby, and thereby, the entire building, an ohel.

The Carnegie Science center has a display on the fourth floor on the human body. Complete limbs are displayed. They are real human parts that have been plastinated. Fluids and the like have been removed. The lung, for example, is kezayis basar. There is a head with a cross-section. While this is not a complete skull, it has plenty of tissue, or basar. Other limbs also have kezayis basar, and on some, there might even be enough bone to create a problem. The cases are hexagonal glass or plexi-glass placed over a table-height box. They are screwed down. There is no visible opening, without actually unscrewing them. It would appear that these are kever sasum. Thus, even if a kohain wishes to be lenient with regard to nochrim and visit the museum, which has no doors closing the section, he may not come too close to these displays.

The Soldiers and Sailors Hall does not have any human remains on display. There are blood-stained uniforms, some of which have bullet holes. However, even if this is dam tevusah, it is so dry that it would not produce a revi’is when laundered. In storage, they have the ashes of a veteran in a box. Judging by the size, it is highly unlikely that the cremains contain enough bone fragments to create an ohel. If, however, one is in proximity to them, he should not touch or move them. There might be a particle the size of a barley grain that is not burnt to ashes and dust.

The Heinz History Center has no known human remains.

The Fort Pitt Museum

The Andy Warhol Museum

The Clemente Museum

Hospitals

As a rule, hospitals pose three distinct issues. There could be a recently deceased patient in the building. The door to the room is usually closed. Usually, within a short period, such as a half-hour, the body is removed to a morgue, or is picked up by a funeral company. The elevator used is not the same as the one used by visitors. The morgue is a closed off section, usually on another floor, and with double doors. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict if and when there will be a recently deceased patient. There could be a short time when this poses a problem for a kohain. This would be when the patient expires, when his door is open, when he is transported through the hallways. We give a chezkas chai, presumption of life, to a standard patient. This can change when he is gosais, actively dying.

The second issue arises with medical schools. Cadavers are not used as much for gross anatomy nowadays. However, in these departments, they have samples of organs and skeletons. However, these departments are often in separate buildings or in basements, with double doors. It is illegal to bring such parts to the main wards. There could be a pathology lab in the main hospital, but usually this deals with live tissue removed during surgery. Autopsies are performed elsewhere.

The third issue arises with transplants. Live transplants pose no problem. The issue arises with transplants from dead people. This includes heart and lung transplants, and some other transplants. We will have to assume that a heart or lung removed from a dying person becomes a piece of a mais, at the very least with its removal.

[The controversy is about before the removal of the heart. Since the heart needs to be beating when it is removed, the person would be considered alive according to one view in the Talmud, even if he already stopped breathing. As the heart is removed and disconnected, it becomes part of a mais according to everyone. The same is true of the lung. In addition, normative halacha considers the person dead when he stops breathing, which is the other view in the Talmud. Nowadays, a new medically recognized form of death has been decided, that of brain death. When there is no brain function left, since the person cannot recover, they consider him dead. The halachic status of this stage is very controversial. Therefore, he might be alive when certain organs and tissues are removed. These would not be a source of tum’ah, unless they are a complete limb, including bone, tissue and tendons. However, removal the heart and lung cause immediate death. In the process, the organ is attached at the point of death, and is part of the corpse.]

The organ is usually flown in by helicopter. It is carried in a cooler in a way that no onlookers know what is inside. It goes directly to the Operating Room, which has double doors (at least – some have even more doors). The only time that this poses a problem for the kohain is when the organ is being taken from the helicopter to the OR. There are probably some hospitals that have an alternative back route, which might mitigate the problem as well. Once the organ is transplanted into a living person, it loses its tum’ah.

Allegheny General transplants hearts and kidneys. Presby is famous for transplanting everything, including many organs from dead people.

The best advice for a kohain in a hospital is to remain in the room as much as possible, with the door closed. He should minimize the time he spends anywhere in the open parts of the building.

College campuses

Carlow university houses the city autopsy labs. This is where the forensics courses are given. They are in the basement of AJP (the A.J. Polumbo) building. This building houses many other classes. There is a big auditorium as well.