Jewish mourners in Brooklyn honor a man they never knew

Liviu Librescu’s casket came Wednesday to a place he had never been.

In the heart of Borough Park in Brooklyn, the unadorned wooden casket was shouldered by Jewish men who had not known the Virginia Tech science professor but whose fathers and grandfathers were, like Librescu, Holocaust survivors.

A community leader called Librescu, 76, a “hero of the Jewish people.”

Librescu’s wife, far from her Virginia home, spoke to those who had never met him.

“He was a very human person. He was a hard man also. He wanted everybody to be 100%,” said Marlena Librescu, 72, a small woman in a colorful knit sweater. “His life was only his family and his students.”

Mourners inside the nondescript hall of Shomrei Hachomos Orthodox Chapels spoke in awe of Librescu’s efforts to block a gunman from entering his classroom, allowing his students to flee.

“We all know in our community that to save one life is to save the world,” said City Councilman Dov Hikind, a frequent spokesman for the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. “Look at the final act of professor Librescu.”

Outside the building, Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning, was said by hundreds as the casket was placed into a black car.

His body arrived in Brooklyn in the morning, a process facilitated by Rabbi Edgar Gluck, a member of the organization Chesed Shel Emes, which conducts burials for Jews around the world. Gluck said Librescu’s body was to be flown out on Wednesday night and would be buried in a cemetery near Ranana, Israel, by sundown today.

As Marlena Librescu spoke, another woman with tears in her eyes walked up behind her. Dana Dillon-Townes, 28, a former Virginia Tech student who lives in Manhattan, embraced the smaller woman and kissed her face.

Dillon-Townes told reporters she also was a family friend of one of the slain students.

“This is just a compilation,” she said, “of a huge amount of horror.”