After passing away suddenly on Thursday while snorkeling in Aruba with his teenage son, a Woodmere man is being laid to rest today.
On the afternoon of January 26, family members of Martin Weisman, who had been snorkeling in the seas off Palm Island when tragedy struck, summoned Chabad shaliach Rabbi Ahron Blasberg to the island.
When Rabbi Blasberg arrived, ambulances were already on the scene, but it was too late for them to save Weisman, who was thought to have suffered a fatal heart attack.
Rabbi Blasberg was able to prevent an autopsy because he had built up links with the local authorities over the years in Aruba, a Dutch kingdom.
He gave the police and the neighborhood funeral parlor credit for their cooperation and tact in addressing the situation.
With only a few aircraft departing the island each day for New York, getting the deceased and his family out of Aruba as Torah holiday week was nearing an end for many was no easy chore.
Making plans for Rachel Weisman to get to New York on time was more difficult for Rabbi Blasberg than just reserving the last two seats on a Delta flight departing that afternoon for Weisman and her kid.
Having heard a few similar tales, Rabbi Blasberg said to the media.
“I had the number of their cargo headquarters in Puerto Rico and was able to get him on an American flight the next day.” He boarded the airplane at 3 PM, arriving in Miami shortly before Shabbos, and was then transported to New York following the conclusion of Shabbos.
Weisman’s funeral was held on Sunday morning at Boulevard-Riverside Chapel in Hewlett. He was thought to be in his late 60s.
Weisman, well-known and well-respected for his dedication to treating clients like family, was a co-owner of Ezra Drugstore, which debuted in the early 1980s as the region’s first Shabbos-observant pharmacy.
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