Aside from the physical trappings of funerals, one of Mr. Boetticher's biggest fascinations is the interplay between the consistency of religious funeral rites over the years and the comparatively faddish nature of the more secular customs surrounding death.
But Hollande declined saying that would sacrifice French secular customs.
To non-Jews, as well as many secular Jews, the custom of eating dairy food like blintzes and cheesecake on Shavuot is peculiar.
It is hard to believe that every Israeli school does not already teach Jewish "history, culture, and customs," although many secular schools understandably teach Orthodox customs as history.
Holland is, in some senses, a special case, but the question this book poses is one that is becoming urgent all over Europe: how to make such people and, in particular, second- and third-generation immigrants, feel at home in secular, liberal societies where many customs and values seem to flout and even mock their own?
All in all, apart from using the Tibetan language, the Kaligang "Tibetanised Hui" have basically experienced a transformation of their value orientation to the Hui ethnic group, in all areas, from secular culture, such as social customs, to the divine world, like their religious belief.
With a largely secular population, who interprets Jewish law and custom for public institutions and public spaces?
"They have their customs," she said, nodding toward secular Israel in general.
Overcrowding became very common after the 6th century, when many secular authorities decided to revert to the Roman custom of permitting burial only outside the walls of the city.
Kushner was brought up in the Modern Orthodox tradition, a strain of Judaism that integrates strict observance of religious law and custom with a life in the secular world.
Dr. Cohen noted that in Israel, nonreligious Jews "can learn Talmud, Bible, Jewish religious customs and regard it as a secular activity".
