MEMBERS OF THE Jewish community and other friends and business associates said farewell to a business stalwart in Barbados as Marshall Oran was laid to rest yesterday.
Oran, founder of Oran Limited, succumbed to cancer at age 85. In the traditions of his faith, his life was celebrated in a Jewish ceremony conducted by Yale University doctor Hal Blumenfeld at the historic Nidhe Israel Synagogue in a section of Bridgetown currently undergoing restoration to reflect its Jewish heritage.
All men at the funeral service, including the non-Jewish businessmen and male staff of Oran Limited who filled the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, covered their heads with the Jewish yarmulke (skullcap) before entering, in keeping with Jewish law.
Blumenfeld, a friend of the local Jewish community, remembered Oran, who came to Barbados in 1963, as a “welcoming and warm, open human being” and a man with “a deep sense of love and dedication to his family”. (GC)
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