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August 20, 1999/8 Elul 5759, Vol. 51, No.46
German Jewish leader Bubis mourned
TOBY AXELROD
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BERLIN - A man who witnessed the near destruction of German Jewry in the Holocaust, but survived to help preside over its renaissance, died Aug. 13 at the age of 72. In keeping with his wishes, Ignatz Bubis, the outspoken and respected leader of Germany's Jewish community, was buried Sunday, Aug. 15, in Tel Aviv.
That he chose to be buried in Israel, rather than in Germany, illustrates what he described as his failure to convince his fellow Germans that they cannot escape their past, but bear a unique responsibility to be a light unto other nations in remembering and preventing another Holocaust.
Bubis' death came weeks after he said he would rather be buried in Israel than in Germany because he feared that his grave would be desecrated like that of his predecessor, Heinz Galinski.
On Sunday, his request was fulfilled in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv, where German President Johannes Rau and Israeli President Ezer Weizman led some 200 mourners at his funeral.
Ironically, an Israeli man apparently squirted black paint into Bubis' grave as it was lowered into the ground. Meir Mendelssohn said he squirted the paint because he believed Bubis took advantage of sympathy for his Jewishness in his career as a real estate developer.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany reported that Bubis died at a hospital in his home city of Frankfurt. The exact cause of death was not given, but Bubis had suffered a series of illnesses in recent months. He is survived by his wife, Ida, and their daughter, Naomi Ann.
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