Rabbi Sets Aside Sorrow for Daughter’s Wedding

On the day of his daughter’s wedding, a Calgary rabbi was in mourning.

Rabbi Menachem Matusof is the younger brother of Rabbi Yosef Matusof, the senior rabbi, founder and principal of the elementary school in Toulouse, France, where three children — ages four, five and eight — and a trainee rabbi were murdered in a terror spree last week that claimed the lives of seven people.

“Like everyone in the Jewish community, we are devastated,” said Matusof, executive director of Chabad Lubavitch of Alberta. “Everyone is still in shock. . . . It’s painful.”

Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old radical Islamist with self-professed al-Qaeda links, was killed March 22 in a standoff with police. Merah also gunned down three soldiers in separate attacks.

In the wake of the bloody rampage, Matusof said his daughter Mussie was preparing for what she had hoped would be one of the most joyous occasions in her life.

But while 600 people were expected to be in attendance at the wedding today, Matusof said one important guest would be absent.

Rabbi Yosef, her uncle, had no choice but to cancel his flight to Calgary when the massacre unfolded.

“He has to be with the community,” said Matusof, who hadn’t been able to reach his brother on the phone since the murders took place. “There’s obviously a lot of psychological work that needs to happen with all the schoolchildren and the classmates and siblings.”

The tragedy is all the more real for Matusof, who said he visited his brother at the school in Toulouse just three months ago.

While there, Matusof said he didn’t sense any tension or anti-Semitism in the city in southwestern France, making last week’s events all the more shocking.

“There were no issues. None whatsoever,” he said.

Today, Matusof said it’s hard to imagine how Toulouse residents are coping with the devastating loss.

“I don’t want to put myself in the shoes of the people there who have to deal with it, many of whom I know,” he said. “As a rabbi, when a tragedy in the community happens to a family, I know how difficult it is for me.”

Although they are saddened by the events in France, Matusof said the family will attempt to put aside their sorrow and enjoy the festivities on his daughter’s special day.

He said postponing the wedding, which is forbidden by Jewish law unless an immediate family member passes away, was out of the question.

“Is there is going to be a mention of the tragedy in Toulouse? Yes, of course,” he explained, “but in Judaism, our philosophy is that the joy takes priority over everything else.

“A little light pushes away a lot of darkness.”