In Edmonton: Divine provenance for Yache Rache, OBM

by Regan Lipes

(AJNews) – Divine provenance, hashgechah patit,is a foundational tenant of the Jewish spiritual world and am Yisrael’s relationship with Hashem. Miracles, in the present day especially, can be difficult to see. They do not manifest like the parting of the Red Sea, or manna from G-d above, but the miracles that are present today are more ordinary, yet still undeniable. Recently, the Edmonton Jewish community was blessed with one such miracle: the kind of ordinary that is in fact extraordinary. Tisha B’Av, 5785 (August 3, 2025), was a rainy Sunday, but one that Rabbi Ari Drelich of Chabad Lubavitch of Edmonton will not soon forget.

On the second most sombre day of the Jewish calendar year, the local community lay Yacheh Rashe (OBM), an 85-year-old Shoah survivor was lain to rest. Born in Kovno, modern day Lithuania, Yacheh Rashe was entrusted to a Polish-Catholic family as an infant; the rest of her family were murder victims of the Shoah. This family cared for her and sheltered her when so many Jews in Europe were being betrayed by long-time friends and neighbours. She was eventually reunited with a grandmother who managed, miraculously, to survive, and Yacheh Rashe would later marry her late husband in a Jewish ceremony in Kovno. The couple was blessed with two sons and a daughter. As a family, they built a life in Montreal after immigrating to Canada.

In December of 2021, Yacheh Rashe relocated from Montreal to Edmonton with her daughter. In her final years, the elderly woman, whose survival of the Shoah was a miracle in and of itself, was cared for by her daughter. “She lived a full life, certainly,” commented Rabbi Drelich in a recent interview at the Chabad House in Edmonton. “But it wasn’t an easy one.” She had no established connection to the Edmonton Jewish community, and Rabbi Drelich and the Chevra Kadisha needed to provide support to the decedent’s surviving daughter without knowing much about the family.

Tisha B’Av, a fasting day, where unless work is absolutely necessary, a Jew should abstain from labouring, is a day of contemplative mourning, but August 3, 2025 had the added sorrow of being the funeral date  for Yacheh Rashe – leaving the world with one less Shoah survivor. “It was raining that morning,” recalled Rabbi Drelich. “It was only about an hour before the funeral, and the sky cleared completely.” Approximately  at  the same time, Rabbi Drelich also received a WhatsApp message that set into motion something truly miraculous.

“Every year the Ghermezian family sponsors young yeshiva boys, ages between 16 to 18, to come to Edmonton for Yachad Camp. I got a WhatsApp message from the Kolel group letting people on the chat know that the Yachad boys would be going to the Jewish cemetery, in keeping with marking this significant day, to say prayers. There wasn’t much of a reason for the message to be sent other than as a general FYI, but really, that in alone was divine provenance.” The Edmonton Chevra Kadisha, in its diligence, always ensures a full minyan as required by halacha, but the arrival of this serendipitous text gave Rabbi Drelich an idea. “I wrote to the group right away and asked if they could change their plans slightly. Instead of going to the old cemetery as they were going to do, I asked if they’d be willing to come to the new cemetery instead.” The group agreed.

Within the hour, two yellow school buses, packed with yeshiva students, pulled up to the new Jewish cemetery. Accompanied by Rabbi Abramsky, over 100 young men poured off the buses, strengthening the existing gathered minyan ten-fold.

At the gravesite, the casket looked to be a tight fit and without even a word or a blink of an eye, the Yeshiva boys climbed in to assist the Chevra Kadisha and help with the digging. “Now, you have to remember that it was a fast day, so these boys hadn’t eaten or had even a sip of water for something like 16 hours at that point, but they took this upon themselves,” commented Rabbi Drelich.  Yacheh Rashe’s casket was then lowered to its final resting place. “Usually, how its worked in the past, is that people fill the grave with earth till the point that the casket is covered and no wood is visible, and then the rest of the grave is filled with a machine,” explained Rabbi Drelich. “Every bit of earth, each particle of soil that filled her grave was shoveled by hand. The boys took turns.”

Yacheh Rashe, a Shoah survivor, with only one family member in town, and no connections to the Jewish community, was buried in a service the likes of which Edmonton has seldom seen. “This was the kind of funeral that would only be seen in large Jewish communities,” Rabbi Drelich said with conviction. “This woman clearly was someone special,” he concluded.

The outstanding volunteers at the Edmonton Chevra Kadisha do so much to provide for the final needs of every Jew in the community, but also for their loved ones. Even those who are not affiliated, or who sadly lack connection to Jewish Edmonton are treated with the utmost respect and dignity. Every Jew is afforded their care and dedication.

The miracle of it all is that Yacheh Rashe lived her final  years  detached from the community of Yiddishkeit, but in death she was paid the respect and reverence typically reserved for prominent figures. The auspicious burial was made possible by a series of events that could not have been predicted or foreseen: the skies clearing, the Ghermezian family generously sponsoring this specific group of Yeshiva students, the WhatsApp message that did not serve any function other than providing information, the slightly too narrow grave, and the dedication of a group of truly pious young men. “Other than the minyan organized by the Chevra Kadisha, there was her daughter, and a Lithuanian-speaking couple that attend Chabad, but nobody else was expected.” Hashem clearly had something else in mind, and although He loves all his children, His divine plan for Yacheh Rashe was much larger.

Moments like these are a reminder that even in  the darkest of times, there is hope. Yache Rashe is survived by her daughter and three grandchildren.  May her memory be a blessing.

Regan Lipes is a Local Journalism Reporter