A new website called Shiva Connect allows mourners to create a registry with service and burial information; locations and times for sitting shiva; the ability yo place deli orders and gift baskets to be delivered to mourner’s homes; a list of surviving family members; and a preferred donations section. And the registry can be posted to Facebook or Twitter, or e-mailed.
The site was started by Sharon Rosen following the loss of her mother in 2009, and finding the subsequent days of shiva “chaotic and overwhelming”, and turned to the Internet for help.
In death, as in life, social media has carved a niche in the Jewish life cycle. Rosen’s site is one of several amid a burgeoning shiva business in the U.S.