Israeli VA Tech massacre victim laid to rest
Title
Israeli VA Tech massacre victim laid to rest
Description
<b>Hundreds of mourners accompany Prof Librescu to his final resting place. 'After surviving the Holocaust and Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in Romania, he ended up being shot in Virginia,' friend says</b>
Ines Ehrlich
Published: 04.20.07, 12:44 / <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3082,00.html">Israel News</a>
Professor Liviu Librescu, who was murdered in the Virginia Tech shooting this week, was buried Friday morning at the Ra'anana cemetery.
Hundreds of mourners accompanied Librescu to his final resting place.
Among those who came to pay their respects was the head of <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3312653,00.html">Jewish Agency Zeev Bielski</a> who was also the former Mayor of Ra'anana, the Romanian consulate general, friends, relatives and media from all over the world.
Shmulik Moyal, a neighbor and friend of Professor Librescu for twenty years, spoke of how one can never know how life will turn out. "After the professor survived the Holocaust and Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in Romania, he ended up being shot in Virginia."
"He died in the place he most loved; he stopped the killer with his own body so that students could live," Moyal said.
<b>'Never gave up on his dream'</b>
Choked by tears, the professor's wife, Marlena, thanked her husband for the two sons he gave her, saying that she hoped he would look after them from above.
The professor's two sons, Joe and Arieh, eulogized their father in Romanian, English and Hebrew, saying that their father had always taught them to be good people, but he never taught them how to become heroes.
In his eulogy Bielski said that it seems that the way Librescu met his death reflects more than anything his personal life story.
"As a Holocaust survivor he managed to rehabilitate his life, to raise a warm and loving family with his wife Marilena who had also been through the Holocaust," Bielski said.
"He struggled to come to Israel, never giving up his dream of living a meaningful Jewish life; he realized his dream of coming to Israel in 1978 thanks to the personal intervention of Menachem Begin with Romania's leader at the time Ceausescu; he became part of the academic world in Israel; he taught and made important achievements as a researcher and a scientist at the Technion, the Tel Aviv University and later at Virginia Tech, where he lectured and researched during the past 20 years."
Gheorghe Angelescu, adviser to the president of Romania, presented Marlena Librescu with the Star of Romania - the country's highest civilian honor, which was previously granted to the prime ministers of France and Italy.
Among the Chabad representatives present was Rabbi Motti Seligson, who told ynetnews how they had taken care of the burial arrangements, and accompanied the family with the coffin on their way back to Israel.
Seligson said that the professor's wife had asked Chabad to organize the lighting of Shabbat candles at the university campus in memory of her husband, who cherished this tradition
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Original Source: <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3390258,00.html">http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3390258,00.html</a>
Ines Ehrlich
Published: 04.20.07, 12:44 / <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3082,00.html">Israel News</a>
Professor Liviu Librescu, who was murdered in the Virginia Tech shooting this week, was buried Friday morning at the Ra'anana cemetery.
Hundreds of mourners accompanied Librescu to his final resting place.
Among those who came to pay their respects was the head of <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3312653,00.html">Jewish Agency Zeev Bielski</a> who was also the former Mayor of Ra'anana, the Romanian consulate general, friends, relatives and media from all over the world.
Shmulik Moyal, a neighbor and friend of Professor Librescu for twenty years, spoke of how one can never know how life will turn out. "After the professor survived the Holocaust and Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in Romania, he ended up being shot in Virginia."
"He died in the place he most loved; he stopped the killer with his own body so that students could live," Moyal said.
<b>'Never gave up on his dream'</b>
Choked by tears, the professor's wife, Marlena, thanked her husband for the two sons he gave her, saying that she hoped he would look after them from above.
The professor's two sons, Joe and Arieh, eulogized their father in Romanian, English and Hebrew, saying that their father had always taught them to be good people, but he never taught them how to become heroes.
In his eulogy Bielski said that it seems that the way Librescu met his death reflects more than anything his personal life story.
"As a Holocaust survivor he managed to rehabilitate his life, to raise a warm and loving family with his wife Marilena who had also been through the Holocaust," Bielski said.
"He struggled to come to Israel, never giving up his dream of living a meaningful Jewish life; he realized his dream of coming to Israel in 1978 thanks to the personal intervention of Menachem Begin with Romania's leader at the time Ceausescu; he became part of the academic world in Israel; he taught and made important achievements as a researcher and a scientist at the Technion, the Tel Aviv University and later at Virginia Tech, where he lectured and researched during the past 20 years."
Gheorghe Angelescu, adviser to the president of Romania, presented Marlena Librescu with the Star of Romania - the country's highest civilian honor, which was previously granted to the prime ministers of France and Italy.
Among the Chabad representatives present was Rabbi Motti Seligson, who told ynetnews how they had taken care of the burial arrangements, and accompanied the family with the coffin on their way back to Israel.
Seligson said that the professor's wife had asked Chabad to organize the lighting of Shabbat candles at the university campus in memory of her husband, who cherished this tradition
--
Original Source: <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3390258,00.html">http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3390258,00.html</a>
Creator
Ynetnews
Date
2007-06-20
Contributor
Adriana Seagle
Rights
Efrat Yaari,Marketing Manager,Ynetnews (Efrat-ya@y-i.co.il)
Language
eng
Citation
Ynetnews, “Israeli VA Tech massacre victim laid to rest,” The April 16 Archive, accessed November 23, 2024, https://april16archive.org/index.php/items/show/571.