Virginia Tech Shootings Followup

Outstanding article on Liviu Librescu, the Holocaust survivor who has emerged as one of the true heroes of the massacre perpetrated by Sueng Hui Cho: http://www.wsls.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSLS%2FMGArticle%2FSLS_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350879513&path=!news!localnews. In case the link goes down, here is the text of what was written, which I offer without comment, because none would do it justice:

It was 7 a.m. Tuesday when the phone rang at Rabbi Shlomo Mayer's home in Charlottesville .The call was from Israel.

On the other end was a rabbi close to the family of Liviu Librescu, the Virginia Tech professor killed less than 24 hours earlier while protecting his students from the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

We need your help, the Israeli rabbi said. Can you help us?

Mayer, who runs the Chabad House at the University of Virginia, immediately called a fellow rabbi in Richmond, who jumped in his car and sped up Interstate 64. By 10 a.m., both men were on the road together to Southwest Virginia.

Their mission: to ensure that Librescu, a Jew and Holocaust survivor, would be treated in accordance with Jewish religious tradition. His family memberswere already suffering so much pain, Mayer said, they hoped to at least be comforted in knowing they could bury their patriarch according to his wishesthat in death, 76-year-old Librescu would enter the next world under his own terms, not those dictated by his killer.

[His son] Ariyeh wanted to come and take his father back to Israel , Mayer said. They needed our help.

Blacksburg has a small Jewish community, with no permanent rabbi. Therefore it would rest with Mayer and his colleague, Rabbi Yossel Kranz of [Chabad in] Richmond , to ensure things were done properly. The two men arrived early Tuesday afternoon at the hospital in Roanoke where Librescu had been taken following the shooting. The clock was ticking. According to Jewish religious tradition, after someones death he or she is to be buried as soon as possible. Librescu's family desperately wanted him on a plane to Israel by Wednesday morning.

The body is to be kept intact and whole, which means no autopsies and no embalming. Jewish ritual also calls for at least one person, known as a shomer, or guard, to stay with the body at all times. The deceased is never to be left alone from death until burial.

But the sheer scope of the massacre meant the system was strained to its limits, and nothing would be simple. Mayer said when he arrived and saw the victims, the scene was beyond description.There were so many bodies, such a quantity, he said.The two rabbis met with doctors and law enforcement authorities and explained why they had come.

They were very nice, very respectful to us the whole time, Mayer said. They understood it was a sensitive issue.But they were also overwhelmed. The medical examiner indicated it would take until at least Friday to release Librescu's body, as there were so many examinations and identifications waiting to be done. Thirty-two victims, after all, had been shot to death by Cho Seung-Hui.

But that timeline simply wouldnt work. Mayer and Kranz frantically tried to find a solution. Mayer was in constant contact by phone from Roanoke with Librescu's widow, Marlena, who was in Blacksburg, updating her on the situation. Mayer, like the Librescus, is Romanian-born, and the two conversed in their native language.

Meanwhile, Kranz worked the phones to plead with local, state and federal authorities to make an exception for Librescu. Finally, after officials at the highest levels - including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and U.S Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-Henrico County - got involved, Librescu's name was moved to the top of the list. They agreed to take him first for examination, Mayer said. We were so appreciative to everyone involved. We knew it was a difficult situation for everybody.

Kaine's spokesman, Kevin Hall, said the governor thought it appropriate to expedite the process. "The only exception we made on the processing of the bodies was for religious reasons. In this case, there obviously was such a reason", Hall said. The Governor's office nudged a little bit in order to be helpful and sensitive to the family, and as a mark of respect for a hero, by every account, in this awful event.

As the killings in Norris Hall took place Monday, Librescu barricaded the door of his classroom, providing enough time for his students to escape through the windows. He died so they could live. Once the rabbis got the word Tuesday in Roanoke that an exception was being made, things moved quickly. Librescu received a non-invasive examination, mainly to remove the bullets, and once his identity was positively confirmed through fingerprints, his bodywas released about 9 p.m. Tuesday. The Virginia State Police escorted the professor's body to Alexandria , where a special team of rabbis from New YorkCity was waiting. The group specializes in transporting Jews for funerals inIsrael , and handles the special purifying rituals done in such instances.

The flight to Israel was set to leave from New York early the next morning. Time was of the essence - they would have to drive through the night.

State officials all along the route north had been notified, and the vehicles transporting Librescu's body were escorted by state troopers in Maryland after crossing the Virginia border, and then picked up troopers in each subsequent state.

"We called the other states and asked them for this courtesy", Hall said. They all readily agreed. By Wednesday morning, Librescu's body was loaded onto a plane bound for Israel . The professor's wife, Marlena, also flew to Israel to join the Librescu family. (The rabbis had advised his son Ariyeh, who had earlier planned to come to the United States if necessary to secure his fathers release, to instead stay in Israel to help plan the funeral.)

On Friday morning, in tranquil Raanana, Librescu was buried. That night, back in Charlottesville , a group of University of Virginia students met at Mayers home to light the traditional Sabbath candles in Librescus memory.

Before Marlena Librescu left Virginia , Mayer said, she spoke to him in Romanian, asking one favor: Have the girls in Charlottesville light the Sabbath candles in her husband's memory. Lighting candles has always been close to my heart, she said. "I told her of course we would", Mayer said. Of course. As the day came to a close Friday, the phone rang. Marlena, who had buried her husband, was calling fromIsrael . Will the girls come to light the candles? Yes, they are coming, Mayer told her. They are all here for you.