Nicholas Berg Eulogized in Private Ceremony

Nicholas Berg, who was executed in Iraq in a very public way, was laid to rest and eulogized in private ceremonies here Friday -- far removed from the spotlight that has focused international attention on his family.

Berg, 26, the communications entrepreneur whose beheading was videotaped by his militant Islamic captors, was described as a caring and adventurous young man during a memorial service attended by about 450 friends and family members.

Police sealed off the Kesher Israel Congregation synagogue and grounds from reporters and camera crews, setting up a perimeter marked by yellow crime tape and armed sentries.

Berg’s father, Michael, has delivered scathing criticisms of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq, telling reporters that he held U.S. officials partially responsible for his son’s death. But the family -- father, mother, brother, sister -- asked police to keep journalists away from the service Friday. One local police chief threatened to forcibly eject any reporter who tried to attend.

“I’d like to see my brother buried in dignity,” David Berg said Thursday.

Nicholas Berg was buried in a family plot at a Jewish cemetery outside Philadelphia, neighbors said.

Friends described him as a young man with a probing mind and an acute interest in science, religion and technology. Bruce Hauser, the Bergs’ next-door neighbor in a leafy suburban neighborhood two miles from the synagogue, said mourners spoke Friday of Berg’s passion for travel and adventure.

About a dozen friends and family members spoke at the 80-minute service, Hauser said, telling stories about Berg and remembering him as “very much an individual who went his own way and had his own unique vision.”

Among the speakers were David Berg and his sister, Sara. A rabbi presiding over the ceremony read words written by Berg’s mother, Suzanne.

Michael Berg, who also spoke, arrived wearing a green cut-off T-shirt over his shirt and tie. It was similar to a T-shirt worn by his son in a recent photo taped to a mailbox in front of the Berg home. Hauser said the elder Berg apparently meant it as a tribute to his son.

Berg and other family members greeted mourners at the front of the synagogue, where the parking lot overflowed and dozens of cars were parked on the lawn. Several dozen photographers and TV crews filmed from behind police barriers at the edge of a highway about 100 yards away. Passing motorists yelled, “Go home!” and “Shame!” at the journalists.

Hauser described the mood inside the synagogue as somber and respectful, with no public mention of Berg’s brutal execution. As friends and family members related anecdotes about him, mourners alternated between laughter and tears.

“I thought I knew a lot about Nick, but listening to those stories about him, I learned a lot more,” Hauser said. “It was an uplifting memorial -- the first step, I think, toward helping the family heal.”