Hesped (Eulogy)

Our father Leslie, Hershie, Menachem Zvi Rubner was an intellectual, hardworking and creative man, with a modest outlook on life.

His beginnings were very difficult, he was born in Subotica, a Hungarian town located just over the border in modern day Serbia. 1937 was a dangerous time to be born a Jew in Central Europe. He was brought up in Budapest, spending his first years in hiding in the Ghetto with his mother and younger brother David, whilst his father was a prisoner in a Nazi Slave Labour camp in Austria. Our father and uncle survived due to the sheer bravery of their mother, Szeren Rubner, with whom he was very close.

Life did not improve after the war, the Russians liberated Hungary and our father’s family were discriminated against by the Communists, because they were bourgeois. Even so, whilst a teenager, he became a top-level competitive swimmer and an amateur actor. One of the parts he played was Othello and he commented that it was much easier acting the part in Hungarian then in Shakespearian English. Whilst acting, he was also supposed to be studying for his matriculation and was surprised to pass his exams whilst learning his acting lines. During his acting career he was earning even more money than his father. His other claim to fame was that he was a member of a choir, even though he could not sing and mimed live on Hungarian radio.

In 1956, there was a very small window of opportunity to escape during the Hungarian uprising and his family managed to get out. Our father eventually joined his family in London, via Vienna and Israel. He enrolled in the Central School of Art and became a talented fashion jewellery Pattern Maker. He created designs for lucrative brands such as Thomas Pink and Swarovski.

In his retirement, our father’s health started to take a toll, he was unwell for many years, yet he never complained. He was very strong both mentally and physically and fought his multiple and complex health conditions to make sure that he was always fit enough for surgery as he wanted to live for as long as possible. Only 10 days before he passed away, he told us that he was not ready to say goodbye.

Our father spent his retirement researching obscure Jewish Communities, writing about them, writing about his own early life, also writing for and editing the Kingsbury Courier, the biannual publication for his beloved Kingsbury Shul.

He was passionate about Holocaust Education and spoke at the Brent Holocaust Memorial events, you can find them on YouTube by typing in Leslie Rubner. He went into schools to talk to the children about the Holocaust and he wrote about his experience as a child in hiding. With the number of Holocaust survivors diminishing, our father would want us to make sure that the lessons of the Holocaust are learned and perpetuated to the next generations. A local Chief Rabbi said to us whilst we were sitting Shiva in Israel, that we should teach the lessons of the Holocaust in the same way as we teach our children about the Exodus from Egypt.

Most recently, whilst in hospital, our father enjoyed listening to his Grandson Joshua’s account of his research through Yad Vashem. This was for Joshua’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah in March, twinning Joshua with our father’s 1st cousin, Michael Rubner and his family from Vacs near Budapest. Michael and his family were murdered by the Nazis in a death camp. Our father was a play mate of his older brother, who shared the same name of Menachem Zvi, but was fondly known by our father as Hashi. He helped Joshua by giving him background information and photographs and was extremely interested in hearing about what Joshua had learnt.

Over his last two and a half months in hospital we got to know our father very well indeed. In spite of his worsening condition, he enjoyed telling us, hospital staff and his other visitors’ stories of his past, ranging from the Holocaust, his mischievous childhood, his acting career, schooling and his daring escape from Communist Hungary. He was desperate to get out of hospital and thanks to two excellent Jewish organisations in London, Shalvata, who look after Holocaust survivors and Jewish Care, the largest health and social care organisation serving the Jewish community in London, he was able to spend 24 hours out of hospital, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Our father was a multi-talented man - an elite sportsman, an actor, a writer, story-teller an artist and a committed Zionist, with a deep love of Judaism and Israel. For our father, his final resting place here in Segula, with his mother, his brother and nephews are symbolic statements of his eternal attachment to our Jewish homeland and our family.

May his memory be blessed. He will be greatly missed by all of us.