- Q. Rabbi can one honor in shul Yochebed Gold who passed away recently? Urgent answer please, as the kiddush offered is this Shabbat Vayehi!
A. Yocheved Gold, who recently died at the age of 102, lived a life that tracked the arc of modern Jewish history, from its deepest horrors to its defiant triumphs.
As a teenager in Nazi Germany, she came face to face with Adolf Hitler and refused to honour him. As a young woman, she helped build the Jewish state. And at 99, she survived Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, only to insist on returning to her home. This is the story of a woman who refused, again and again, to be moved.
Yocheved was born in 1923 in Halberstadt, Germany, into a family whose roots in the country stretched back generations. Her mother, Sarah (née Bamberger), descended from a line of rabbis; her father, Rabbi Dr. Aharon Neuwirth, was known for his scholarship and deep piety. One of seven children, Yocheved grew up in a warm, proudly observant home that took Jewish life seriously.
In 1930, the family moved to Berlin. Three years later, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, and the walls began closing in.
(from Aish.com).
There is no question that Yocheved Gold deserves recognition for all she went through and kept her spirit and stood up with honor.
Yet it depends on the established traditions of the particular shul in similar cases.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.
Important Numbers
