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Friend: She had a goal a day, a smile for all
Temple memorializes Annie Le as her fiance, family and friends mourn
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| 'Oh Lord, my God, I pray that these things never end: The sand and the sea, the rush of the waters, The crash of the heavens, the prayer of the heart.'
— Lyrics from 'Eili, Eili', one of Annie Le's favorite Jewish songs |
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September 24, 2009 | 12:18 PM
Several hundred people gathered Wednesday night at Temple Beth El in Huntington to memorialize the murdered 24-year-old Yale grad student Annie Le, whose body was found on the day she was supposed to marry her fiancé, Jonathan Widawsky.
At 7 pm on Wednesday night, hundreds of cars filled the parking lot and lined the streets in order to join Widawsky and his family, who worship at the Park Avenue temple. The memorial service lasted approximately an hour and fifteen minutes and started with Rabbi Jeffrey Clopper speaking movingly about Le, a Vietnamese girl who had planned to convert to Judaism.
Clopper, with Temple Beth El since 2003, explained that for all people everywhere, the death of a loved one is a difficult time. In the Jewish faith, "we remember our loved ones as they were in life." And that was the heart of the memorial, as five people close to Le got up to make very emotional speeches.
First a friend from the University of Rochester, where Le and Widawsky met as undergraduates, spoke passionately about Le, sounding close to tears several times. He described her as an "experience" and he tried to share that experience with everyone, talking about how she was full of energy and life. He added that he would never forget her.
Another friend, speaking on behalf of Le's best friend who could not attend the service, spoke about how "goal-oriented" Le had been, how she would have a goal set for herself daily and always a smile for everyone.
Although Le's fiance was present, he did not speak. Instead, his mom, Janet, talked about what a great match Le had been for her son. His younger sister, Lauren, elaborated on that theme, saying how Jonathan and Annie were "soul mates" who started out as best friends before dating each other. In tears, Lauren added that Annie had loved Jonathan so much and had been like a big sister to her. Crying, she finished by hoping that her brother would be "okay" without Annie.
Last, Sandra Sherry, who has served as cantor at Temple Beth El since 1989, recalled seeing Jonathan grow up, from his bar mitzvah at age 13 until 10 days ago, when the cantor was supposed to officiate their wedding. "They were a good fit," she said, sadly.
The temple's choir, led by the cantor, sang three passionate songs. They started by singing one of Annie's favorite Jewish songs, "Eili Eili" by Hannah Szenesh.
Szenesh, a Hungarian Jew, was also 24 years old when she was murdered, the rabbi noted.
She was one of 37 Jews living in Palestine, now Israel, who were trained by the British army to parachute into Yugoslavia during World War II to help save the Jews of Hungary, who were about to be deported to the German death camp at Auschwitz. Szenesh was arrested at the Hungarian border, imprisoned and tortured, but she refused to reveal details of her mission and was eventually tried and executed by firing squad. She is regarded as a national heroine in Israel, where several streets and a kibbutz are named after her and her poetry is widely known.
Le will be buried during a private ceremony on Saturday in northern California, where her family lives. Her body was found Sunday, Sept. 13, in a basement wall at the Yale laboratory where she worked. She disappeared after entering the lab on a Tuesday morning, Sept. 8.
Police arrested and charged a lab technician, Raymond Clark III, in the murder.
There were no flowers at Temple Beth El on Wednesday, as there typically are not at Jewish funerals. Jews don't believe in cutting down a living thing to honor the dead. People have been asked, instead, to donate to a charity that sustains life, either the life of the Jewish people or a medical charity.
Rabbi Clopper said, "Annie's memory lives on in all of us. Love doesn't die, only people do."
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