Aryeh Even, who died on Friday evening after contracting the coronavirus, was laid to rest overnight Saturday at the Har HaMenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Even, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, made Aliyah to Israel alone from Hungary in 1949. He is survived by four children, 18 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Even lived at the Migdal Nofim nursing home in Jerusalem, where the coronavirus spread after one of the social workers contracted it from a French tourist and then passed the virus to the elderly.
Even’s funeral was held in an unusual format because of the Health Ministry’s restrictions on the public: Only members of the immediate family attended the funeral, which was limited to only 20 participants who kept a distance of two meters away from each other.
In accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, the Shamgar funeral home moved to operate in an emergency format, and a special wing was set up to accommodate deaths of coronavirus carriers.
Yitzhak Gelbstein, head of Hevra Kadisha, said, "The dedicated employees are going to the funeral tonight with all the necessary protective measures. We all hope that this will be the last funeral of a coronavirus victim in Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular." The Hevra Kadisha members handled the body while wearing masks.