Born March 14, 1916   |   Bucecea, Botosani, Moldova, Romania

September 27, 1994   |   Calgary, Canada

Hard-working and optimistic, Shlomo was a spiritual man who deeply loved his family.

Shlomo was one of seven children born to Tauba and Duvid-Leib Lazar Hersh, who was a winemaker. The family moved to Bucharest when Shlomo was a child. Shlomo attended high school at night and worked for a newspaper during the day. He was active in Gordonia, a Zionist youth organization that encouraged Jewish immigration to Palestine. Like other Romanian Jews, the Lazar Hersh family felt the sting of antisemitism and xenophobia prior to World War II. The Jews of Bucharest experienced hardship under the fascist dictatorship of Ion Antonescu. During a brutal pogrom in 1941, in which more than 125 Jews were savagely murdered, the Lazar Hersh family home was vandalized and their belongings destroyed and looted. The community experienced harsh persecution, and Shlomo was forced into hard labour. Shlomo married Mali in 1942 at Bucharest’s historic Coral Temple.


Following World War II, Shlomo and Mali welcomed one daughter, Hana (Adriana), born in 1947. The family immigrated to Israel in 1950, carrying with them only two suitcases and the profound hope that they would finally live in freedom. Although life was difficult for new immigrants, Shlomo worked hard to build his luggage business and his country, serving as a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces. He loved Israel and the freedom his family experienced there. In 1989, Shlomo and Mali moved to Calgary, reuniting there with Hana and her family. They were Saba and Safta to two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.