Toronto — Yechezkel Goldberg grew up singing on albums with the Toronto Boys Choir, a group that brought children together to celebrate Jewish music. His vocal love of his faith eventually caused him to move to Israel, where he dedicated his life to helping people, including victims of terrorism.
That life ended yesterday morning, when Dr. Goldberg, 42, got on Jerusalem's No. 19 bus. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives just as the vehicle pulled away from the station, killing Dr. Goldberg and at least nine others. The attack, carried out by an off-duty Palestinian police officer, was claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which said the bomber was avenging an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip.
Today, Mr. Goldenberg's wife, Shifra, and seven children, plus brothers, sisters and friends across the globe, are struggling with a grim reality: More Israelis are dead, and someone they love is on the casualty list.
"We walked over to pay our respects. There's no way we could have possibly known," said David Weinberg, a Canadian childhood friend who walked to the scene of yesterday's bombing to light memorial candles with other members of a visiting anti-Semitism forum. The group didn't know that one of the dead was a dear friend, and ended up attending his funeral.
At midnight in Jerusalem, more than 200 people were waiting for the funeral procession to arrive at the hilltop cemetery where Dr. Goldberg (known to many by his nickname, Chezi) was being brought.
People described a sorrowful scene with many Canadians, including expatriate Torontonians, who had come to pay their respects.
"It's getting awfully cold. . . . I guess that just goes with the atmosphere here," said Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada.
Dr. Goldberg was an internationally renowned psychologist who specialized in counselling troubled teenagers.
He spoke at many conferences dealing with mental-health issues and wrote regular columns for many Jewish publications.
He operated a clinical practice in Jerusalem, and lived in the suburb of Betar Illit, which is home to about 16,000 people, most of them Orthodox Jews.
Many at the funeral noted that the attack had taken place just down the street from the hotel where world leaders had met to discuss the growing problem of anti-Semitism, and on the same day when Israel traded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group.
"The tragedy and the irony of it all that this should happen today when Israel is exchanging prisoners," said Keith Landy, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
"It's such a heinous event today that one has to question the humanity and the fact they are so disdainful of the sanctity of human life."
"This is anti-Semitism taken to its extreme," Mr. Weinberg said.
Dr. Goldberg, a graduate of the University of Toronto, leaves family members in his childhood neighbourhood in Thornhill, Ont., including his mother, Ruth, sisters Marla, Nesya and Cara, and brothers Aaron and Chaim.
"Once the sadness settles, the next thing is anger and disgust and revulsion at the way this terrorism is affecting all of us. It hits very close to home," said Moshe Ronen, a childhood friend.
Friends said Dr. Goldberg wasn't heavily religious as a child.
Dr. Goldberg was educated in Toronto's Jewish school system and by the time he reached high school, he had decided to use the Hebrew Yechezkel instead of his given name, Scott, signalling his changing relationship with his faith.
Dr. Goldberg spent the rest of his life practising Orthodox Judaism, which inspired him to move to Israel after spending the first three decades of his life in Toronto.
A vigil for Dr. Goldberg is to be held today in Toronto at the Israeli consulate, and B'nai Brith has plans to establish a scholarship fund to help his children.
With a report from Jonathan Fowlie
