In a special operation carried out by ZAKA International and Chabad shalichim in China and Hong Kong, a Holocaust survivor who died in China before Rosh Hashanah was finally brought to kever Yisrael on Motzei Shabbos, sparing him from being cremated by Chinese authorities.

Shmuel Yosef (Sam) Briskin, z’l, was born in France and survived the horrors of the Holocaust together with his mother and siblings. After the war, his family emigrated to Montreal.

In recent years, Shmuel moved to China for business reasons. He became ill about a month before Rosh Hashanah and a few weeks later, he passed away in a local hospital, only days before Yom Tov.

Rabbi Shalom Hazan, a Chabad shaliach in Shenzhen, one of the most populous cities in southeastern China, spoke about what happened: “I got a call from Shmuel’s sister, a 90-year-old woman living in the US who told me about her brother who lives alone in China and is hospitalized in a local hospital due to a severe infection. His condition was very serious but he wasn’t receiving medical treatment due to his poor financial situation. We immediately contacted the hospital and arranged for him to be transferred to the ICU and we transferred a sum of money we collected from community members. Unfortunately, that night Shmuel was niftar.”

In order to bring Shmuel to kever Yisrael, Rabbi Hazan contacted the Chabad shaliach in Hong Kong (which shares a border with Shenzhen) and ZAKA International. HaRav Yaakov Roja, director of ZAKA’s Rabbinical Va’ad, ruled that since the case involved a Holocaust survivor, a kodesh neshama, everything should be done to bring him to kevura davka in Israel.

Rabbi Mordechai Avtzon, the Chabad shaliach in Hong Kong who headed the mission, said: “We fought a real war for kavod hameis for this meis mitzvah. It was a very sad story. Shmuel died alone, the local authorities raised many obstacles in our path, both because of COVID and the huge sum of tens of thousands of dollars they demanded in order to release his body. After receiving the news of his death, we immediately began raising the money from members of the Jewish community in Hong Kong and friends from the US, who donated for the holy mission of bringing a Jew, a kodesh neshamah who survived the Holocaust, to kever Yisrael.”

“We worked very hard in the days between Yom Tov and Shabbos in order to arrange all the permits and paperwork and thanks to our cooperation with ZAKA, we succeeded in the difficult mission.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)