Michel Mizrahi Returned to Israel for Burial After Montreal Shooting

Three days after the shooting attack in Montreal, Canada, the body of Michel Mizrahi arrived tonight at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. After the release procedures were completed, ZAKA transferred the body by ambulance ahead of the funeral, which is scheduled for Thursday at 10:30 p.m. in the cemetery in Migdal HaEmek.

ZAKA Modiin Illit commander Shlomo Gottlieb said: “After days of intensive activity overseas, we are able to complete the act of kindness and bring Michel (Michael) Mizrahi on his final journey to a Jewish burial.” He added that for ZAKA, “the mission begins the moment the report is received and ends only after the deceased is brought to burial with the dignity he deserves.”

Moishi Blech, a volunteer with ZAKA’s international unit and a Montreal resident, said he lives near the scene and attends the same synagogue as Mizrahi. He said he rushed to the site when the report came in, stayed for hours with Mizrahi’s son until the family received the painful news, and then helped form a local team with the authorities and the Jewish community to assist the family, advance the body-release process, and clean the complex scene so the deceased could be buried as quickly as possible.

Mizrahi was killed in last Monday’s shooting near a Chabad House in Montreal, where two other people were wounded. Initial information suggests he was hit during a crossfire at the scene, but Canadian authorities are still investigating the exact circumstances of his death. Footage from the site showed a police officer apparently wounded by a bullet, an armed civilian trying to help him, and nearby a man in military uniform lying motionless, apparently the shooter who was killed.