Bainbridge Island Chabad Brings Holocaust Survivor to Rest in Israel

When Moshe and Shoshana Weissfish visited Bainbridge Island—a small city located across Puget Sound from Seattle, Washington—in the spring of 2020, they didn’t plan to stay for that long. After some time abroad, they planned to travel back to their home in Bet El, Israel—a home Moshe cherished; a place where he found meaning, belonging and community after a childhood spent on the run.

Weissfish survived the Holocaust, fleeing the onrushing wave of the Nazi invasion as a child and finding refuge in the Far East, then in the United States. When he and his wife, Shoshana, moved to Bet El, Israel, it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for Moshe. 

But in March of 2020, that dream came to a halt. As the Covid pandemic swept across the globe, travel swiftly became untenable—especially for seniors like the Weissfishes, in Bainbridge Island. By the time the risks had subsided, Moshe’s health had declined to the point where air travel was no longer an option. He was stranded thousands of miles from his home.

He found community once more—this time at Chabad of Bainbridge Island, led by Rabbi Mendy and Shaina Goldshmid. He’d attend community events when his frail constitution allowed it, enjoyed the rabbi and rebbetzin’s visits, and looked forward to Torah classes with the Goldshmids. “His one fervent wish—a wish he shared many times with me, with his wife, and with his community—was to go back to the land of Israel, the place he yearned for all his life,” said Rabbi Mendy Goldshmid.

In August, Moshe Weissfish passed away. Alone and far from home, Shoshana reached out to the only family she had in Bainbridge Island—Chabad—to help her fulfill her husband’s final wish. Transportation and burial in Israel would cost $25,000, but the Goldshmids got to work.

Local and Seattle-area donors made cornerstone donations to the cause of the burial of this meit mitzvah—one who has passed and whose burial is the truest form of kindness. Then they launched a crowdfunding initiative. Moshe’s extended family—hundreds of them—came to his aid. Within 36 hours, the complete sum was raised, and Moshe was flown to Israel, where he was buried in Bet El, the town he loved.