More than one hundred people attended the funeral of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who had no known family in Canada after a Toronto rabbi issued a plea on Facebook.
鈥淲hat I saw was the best of humanity,鈥� Rabbi Zale Newman of Toronto told CTVNews.ca. 鈥淚t was a pure, true kindness because it can never be repaid鈥� They鈥檙e just going to know that they did good and maybe that鈥檚 the best repayment of all.鈥�
Newman, a hedge fund manager, volunteers as a rabbi with : a Jewish charity that provides assistance to the ill, infirm and vulnerable.
Soon after Eddie Ford was hospitalized with cancer in 2018, Newman began visiting the ailing Holocaust survivor weekly in a Toronto palliative care ward to keep him company and teach him about the faith he was forced to abandon in the 1940s.
鈥淗e was sweet and funny and we became friends,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淓very Friday, we would sing together and that鈥檚 all the way to the last Friday of his life.鈥�
鈥楢 BEAUTIFUL SEND-OFF鈥�
As Newman tells it, Ford was just six years old when the Holocaust broke out. Living in Budapest, Hungary at the time, his family hid him with a Christian family. Newman said Ford still recalled being in Budapest鈥檚 Great Synagogue -- the largest in Europe.
鈥淗e remembered being a little kid looking up at the dome and thinking that he was looking into the heavens,鈥� Newman said.
Only Ford鈥檚 brother and mother survived the genocide that claimed the lives of an estimated six million Jews. Ford moved to Canada at the age of 16, and while he always knew of his Jewish identity, he feared that his lack of observance over the years would make him ineligible for a Jewish funeral.
鈥淗e had a little bit of a religious awakening over the last months,鈥� Newman said.
Ford, whose Hebrew name was Efraim ben Dov, passed away on the night of Jan. 29. With his only known living relative being a nephew in Detroit, on the night of Jan. 30 to gather a 鈥渕inyan鈥� for the funeral of a 鈥渟weet Holocaust survivor鈥� at a Jewish cemetery the following day in Richmond Hill, Ont.
In Judaism, a 鈥渕inyan鈥� refers to the quorum of ten Jewish adults needed for a religious service.
Only three people responded to Newman鈥檚 online request. But when he arrived at the cemetery on Jan. 31, Newman was 鈥渟tunned鈥� to see more than one hundred people bundled against the biting cold for the ceremony, which a local funeral home graciously offered to cover the cost of. Temperatures, Newman said, had dipped well below -20 degrees Celsius with the wind chill that day.
鈥淢y heart began to pound like crazy,鈥� Newman recalled. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楴o this can鈥檛 be: all these people, all these cars are here for Eddie Ford from a Facebook post?鈥欌��
Even Ford鈥檚 estranged brother, who had heard about the funeral through the nephew, attended. With Newman鈥檚 help, the brother recited the Kaddish: the Jewish prayer of mourning.
鈥淚t was 45 minutes in ultra-freezing weather, but we all huddled together and which is both, I think, a sign of comradeship and love and to keep warm,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淚t was a beautiful send-off.鈥�
鈥業 JUST COULDN鈥橳 IGNORE IT鈥�
Ronen Israelski, a Toronto-based filmmaker, was one of those total strangers who attended the funeral.
鈥淕rowing up in Israel, we鈥檙e embedded by those values of mutual responsibility to one another, and when I saw that post on Facebook I just couldn鈥檛 ignore it,鈥� Israelski, whose father was also a Holocaust survivor, told CTVNews.ca.
Israelski, who moved to Canada from Israel four years ago, was editing a documentary about seniors who were once members of Germany鈥檚 Nazi Party when he saw Newman鈥檚 post.
鈥淚 said, 鈥榃ow, this could not have caught me more ready to go and act,鈥欌�� Israelski recounted. 鈥淪o I just left everything and I went there. And I didn鈥檛 think also there would be as many people as there were there. I was surprised. It was a very emotional, spontaneous event.鈥�
The experience, Israelski added, was a 鈥渉oly moment.鈥�
鈥淭he thing that we can learn from all this is that the Holocaust generation is a dying generation,鈥� Israelski explained. 鈥淚n a few years, there will not be any more Holocaust survivors to tell the story and to pass on the message鈥� And it is our duty as the next generation to share the story. Always remember. Never forget.鈥�
鈥業 THINK IT CHANGED THEIR LIVES鈥�
Newman said the funeral left him 鈥渧ery, very, very humbled.鈥�
鈥淚t told me two things,鈥� the rabbi added. 鈥淥n a purely Jewish level, it told me that we鈥檙e a family鈥� The other thing is that I think it reminds us that people are good, inherently. We feel best when we do good鈥� That鈥檚 the same for the Christians who hid him and the same for his Filipina caregiver who鈥檚 Catholic.鈥�
Newman spoke to CTVNews.ca Monday afternoon, just before officiating at the funeral of an elderly Jewish woman who also had no known relatives in Canada.
鈥淚t鈥檚 uplifting when people show up; it鈥檚 heartbreaking that a person had to leave the world alone,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f everyone would wake up in the morning and say, 鈥榃hat good thing could I do today?鈥� -- little things to make the world a better, sweeter, lighter, brighter happier place -- imagine if seven billion people would do that? That鈥檇 be a hell of a world. Well, here 200 people did that and I think it changed their lives.鈥�
