Death of my father

My father died last week. He was 81 and had been ill for a long time. It was a relief to see his suffering end. We buried him in Botany Bay in a beautiful ceremony, simple and moving, a lovely occasion, with a gentle breeze and the ocean around us. Before the illness emasculated him, he was an extraordinary man with extraordinary achievements. I wrote an oration that was read out at the funeral, a fittting tribute. "Funeral oration – Lionel H- Sydney 27 April 2005 Today we are here to farewell Lionel H- and to celebrate and cherish an extraordinary life – one that spanned eight decades, five continents and the best and worst of a tumultuous century. Lionel was born some 81 years ago, in 1924, in Somerset East, a small rural town in South Africa. A precociously gifted student, he overcame tuberculosis and severe asthma to gain seven distinctions in his year 12 school exams. A direct descendant of Rashi, the great Jewish medieval sage, Lionel was raised in a traditional orthodox religious environment and from an early age was a passionate Zionist. His character, deeply influenced by the death of his mother shortly after he was born, was that of an outgoing man, generous of spirit, eager to please, driven to succeed, possessed with a keen sense of right and wrong and a determination to make a difference through service to the community and those less fortunate. An intellectual and a renaissance man with a deep love of art, music, history and literature; throughout his life he fought evil wherever and whenever he found it. He fought Hitler’s armies in North Africa and Italy yet was saddened to be involved in the destruction of Monte Cassino. World War II was where his faith in God was challenged, but his commitment to the Jewish community was lifelong, best epitomised by his time as general secretary of the South African Zionist federation. Serving as a volunteer in the Israeli War of Independence, he forcibly intervened to prevent an Arab massacre and in South Africa, appalled by the injustice of Apartheid, he was a founder member of the Progressive Party in the 1950s. In the 1960s, Lionel was employed by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the World Jewish Congress to combat Anti-Semitism and track down Nazi fugitives. Blessed with a photographic memory and an insatiable curiosity he travelled widely and often, wrote several books, hundreds of articles, a number of unpublished novels, was a gifted orator and lecturer and an accomplished linguist who spoke, with varying degrees of fluency, over a dozen languages. But Lionel was much more than just a polymath or savant and it is for his personal qualities that he will be best remembered. For despite his intellectual brilliance and considerable achievements as a successful lawyer, communal leader, businessman and academic, he was unfailingly gentle, modest, unassuming and humble. A true gentleman, on who respected all regardless of caste, colour, religion or status. To Lionel they were all equal and his generosity of spirit encompassed them all. In his final years he dedicated himself to the aims and activities of his local Lions and Probus Clubs, gaining immense satisfaction from the fellowship and camaraderie of his fellow members as they assisted those in need. Cultured and erudite, he had an eye for beauty and the finer things in life, and, half a century ago, had the singular good fortune to meet and fall in love with an exotic English beauty, marrying her in England in April 1956. No recounting of Lionel’s life and achievements would be complete without acknowledging Ruth’s seminal involvement in every facet of his life. Two sides of the same coin, they were inseparable. The sum was greater than the whole and every step of the way Ruth was there, supporting and encouraging him. Theirs was an old-fashioned marriage. Born of a love that never dimmed, Ruth rook seriously her vow to “love and to cherish until death do us part.” And as Lionel’s illness took hold, as his intellect dimmed and his vigour declined, Ruth emerged from the shadows and gradually but surely took centre stage. Selflessly and unstintingly caring for Lionel in his final years, Ruth demonstrated the depth of her devotion and the selfless nature of her love. Lionel may be gone Ruth, but all of us here know that your love for him will never diminish." In many ways I am a product of him.