Farewell to Yossi Gadot

Our dear Yossi passed away one year ago. I was on a business trip then and that’s why I couldn’t be at his funeral. I regret this very much. One should accompany friends on their last journey, and Yossi was my good friend. So, I decided to be with him today, on his first yahrzeit.

I met Yossi five years ago. I remember that moment like it was today – he came with his wife Rohale to a hotel in Tiberias, where I stayed during my travel across Israel. He contacted me via e-mail a few days earlier and how much he was astonished that we could get to know each other in person. He was looking for contact with me, because he learned that I wrote a book about the history of Jews living for several centuries in the town of Łuków, where his wife Rohale’s family came from. His ancestors came from the nearby town of Siedlce. That meeting in Tiberias was as nice as if we had known each other for years. From the first moments I felt that I met people who were kind, warm, friendly and good. A deep friendship was established between us, which we continued for the next four years. Only four years - and it seems to me that I knew Yossi and Rohale all my life.

Since then, we have met many times – in Poland, during various celebrations connected with commemorating the Jews of Łuków, and in Israel, when I came here. Yossi was the last time in Poland in October 2017. He was as humorous as ever, he was full of life and he made plans for the future. I saw him for the last time two months later in Israel, when he was fighting the disease. Then he did not give up and did not lose hope. I did not think then that I see him for the last time...

Yossi was my friend. However, this is too little said. He was someone very close to me, a member of my spiritual family. I loved him and he loved me, why he repeatedly expressed – not only in the words of e-mails which we exchanged, but above all in concern. At every opportunity he asked if everything was fine, how I feel, how I’m doing in my life. It was not a courtesy – it was an authentic concern, the kind we surround our loved ones.

Not only me did feel a deep bond with Yossi and Rohale. My family shared my feelings. My wife Maggie met with Yossi and Rohale many times and she also painfully suffered the loss of Yossi. She was crying all day after she got to know about Yossi’s death. 

Yossi had so many plans related to the commemoration of the Jewish community in Łuków. He dreamed about establishing a museum in the historic railway ramp building. He strived to establish cooperation between Polish and Israeli youth. Who will do all this now - without his energy, positive thinking and gentleness, which won him widespread sympathy? I believe that there will be people who will continue his work for the memory of Yossi. For my part, I will not stop trying to keep what we have managed to do together so far.

Dear Yossi, my friend, my companion, my spiritual relative, I want to tell you that the world without you is not the same anymore. There’s lack of your radiant smile, your goodness, which you have given to people around you. I will always remember you. Because although we only knew each other for four years – you have become an essential part of my life.

May your soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life. Rest in peace.

The speech given by Krzysztof Czubaszek at the cemetery in Kiryat Tivon during the yahrzeit of Yossi Gadot (2019)