By COLlive reporter
A special operation last week involved volunteers from the ZAKA rescue and recovery organization, representatives of families and the Chevra Kadisha of Casablanca led by the Chabad Shliach Rabbi Levi Banon.
They removed the bodies of seven Jews who passed away from Covid-19 during the pandemic and were temporarily buried in the Jewish cemetery in Casablanca about a year and a half ago.
Michael Gutwin and Snir Elmaleh, coordinators of the ZAKA delegation, said: “With the start of the first wave of Corona, dozens of Jews who died from Corona around the world were buried in a temporary burial site in their city to save their bodies from being burnt as practiced in many countries.”
Rabbi Banon oversaw the holy process and traveled with the coffins to the Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday night. From there they were brought to rest in Israel.
Among them was Rabbi Sholom Eidelman, the longtime devoted Shliach of the Rebbe for over 60 years in Morocco, who passed away at the age of 83 on the second day of Pesach 5780.
Rabbi Eidelman had a great influence on Moroccan Jews and led a kollel that trained most of the Rabbonim and Shochtim in Morocco. Among his students were Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar and Montreal dayan Rabbi David Raphael Banon.
Rabbi Amar was among those present in Jerusalem participating in the second funeral, praising him for his selfless dedication to fellow Jews, immense scholarship, devotion to the Rebbe and halacha.
Rabbi Eidelman was reinterred at Har Hazeisim. “He was active in areas of rabbanus, mikvahs and kashrus, and in spreading Torah, Judaism and the wellsprings of Chassidus in Casablanca and around Morocco,” his headstone reads.
His wife Rebbetzin Gittel Eidelman remains in Casablanca and continues to teach and guide the Jewish community there.
It should be stated that when they removed rabbi eidelmans Aron from Morocco
His guf was fully intact as if he passed away yesterday