Esther Friedman, matriarch of a pro-active Zionist family from Netanya and Jerusalem, died Tuesday night at age 94 after several years of serious illness. She was buried Wednesday on the Mount of Olives.
All eulogies reminded the mourners of the deceased’s great love for Israel and the Land of Israel.
Esther's daughter and successor, Cynthia, eulogized her mother, explaining that she had been inspired from a very young age by her mother's activism and devotion to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). Cynthia became one of the youngest independent olim [new immigrants] in the history of the State of Israel when she persuaded her parents to allow her to make Aliyah alone at age 12. She spent her first year at a boarding school, and her now deceased parents joined her a year later. Later, the mother-and-daughter pair became active in the Netanya branch of the grassroots Land of Israel movement, Mattot Arim, and were particularly devoted to Joseph's Tomb in Shechem. They often organized trips to the site for their fellow Netanya activists.
Close acquaintances recalled at the funeral that Eretz Yisrael was "constantly in Esther Friedman's heart and soul," even in her youth in London. Her home in Israel was a center for pro-Israel activity including marches, rallies, trips to Judea and Samaria towns and sites.
Friends said, “Esther was a very religious person in her own way, and would pray to G-d every day, talk to Him, beseech Him for things… She regarded death as just a way of going from here to a better place. She definitely believed that, and in the rebuilding of the Temple… She would always urge us: ‘Don't say good bye, say shalom: It is G-d's name, so use it.’”