The Unexpected Comfort of Livestreaming Funerals

There were friends who couldn’t travel and family members who lived too far away to make it in time for the service, which, by Jewish tradition, had to happen as soon as possible. But their chapel had a solution: It livestreamed the funeral, and uploaded a recording of the service to its website shortly after, with a hyperlink prominently displayed in the obituary...The videos are not solely for the benefit of remote viewers. Levy and her family found that it proved most useful to those that attended. “One of the things that we were told was: You're not going to remember anything,” she says. “[Everyone is] saying all these wonderful things, they're telling these stories and you can't process it,” the grief and shock is just too much.

In the months since her mother’s January 7 funeral, Levy says she and other family members have watched and rewatched the recording online. “One of the only things that every day reminds you of how great she was in such an awful time is people's memories and you sharing those memories with each other.”

Now Even Funerals are Livestreamed -- and Families are Grateful