Judge says ‘nearest equivalent of biblical solution’ would be one equally unwelcome to Jewish brother and Anglican sister

A brother and sister who follow different faiths have gone to the high court to settle a dispute over how to conduct their mother’s funeral.

Iris Freud died on 12 October but her body remains in storage at West Middlesex University hospital in Isleworth because the siblings have been unable to agree on the mode and place of burial.

Susanna Levrant, 66, wants a traditional Church of England funeral for her late mother, with “familiar and much-loved hymns, and a rendition of If You Were the Only Girl in the World,which her father used to sing to the deceased,” the high court in London heard.

But her brother, David Freud, also in his 60s, insists their mother should have a “very austere” funeral, following Jewish mourning rites and without music. He also says she must be interred in a consecrated graveyard where “her burial will not be disturbed for hundreds of years”.

Mr Justice Arnold told the court: “This case has come to court quickly and for good reason. It must be deeply distressing for all those concerned. I do not have the judgment of Solomon. However, if this brother and sister cannot agree on this issue, somebody will have to decide, and that will be me.”

The judge said he did not relish the task and urged the parties to settle their differences, warning that his decision might not bring them comfort. “The nearest equivalent of the biblical solution is for the court to adopt a third way forward which is equally unwelcome to both parties,” said Arnold.

Cheryl Jones, for Levrant, said her client’s mother was born into the Church of England and baptised but her husband – who died before her – was a practising Jew. Iris Freud, however, did not convert to Judaism, the court heard. “Once her husband died, [she] ceased observing Jewish rules,” the barrister added.

Levrant, of Chiswick, west London, was “emotionally close” to her mother and followed her more relaxed Church of England religious leanings, Jones said.

However, her brother from Oxford, is seeking to respect his late father’s faith. The court heard that David Freud wanted to observe the period of shloshim, during which a mourner is forbidden to attend concerts or listen to music, among other things.

Freud said he had a “very close relationship” with his mother and still regarded her house as his family home when she died. “My mother always kept a room with a bed in it, which she called David’s room,” he told the judge.

“My mother was a shy woman and found it difficult to make friends because she was hard of hearing. She was very lonely and would ring me up all the time, and I would go and stay with her regularly. But she got more and more lonely and more and more sad,” he added.

Freud, who is representing himself, told the judge his mother’s body was “already in a dreadful, dreadful state, and the sooner she is buried the better”.

He said he wanted his mother to be buried in consecrated ground at Kensal Green cemetery, where he can be sure her body would not be exhumed for 999 years, in line with Jewish practice.

Freud said he had reserved two plots there, so that his sister could be buried next to their mother if she wished.

Levrant, however, regards the north London cemetery as “rundown and unpleasant” and wants the burial to take place at East Sheen cemetery nearer to their mother’s former home in Putney and her “beloved Richmond Park”.

Jones added that Levrant believed her brother was “retrospectively attributing to the deceased religious views she did not have during her lifetime”. She said: “She believes her mother would have wanted to be buried close to the area she lived in for 66 years, in a place that can be visited regularly by her and her friends.”

The case continues.

