Eulogy for Harold Goldzweig – 13/4/16 – By his daughter Debbie Craig
Most eulogies do not start with the statement that my “Dad was a Coke addict”, but he was, and it
didn’t matter if it was Diet, Zero or just plain old Coke Cola, that’s all he ever drank.
He was also an enigma when it came to his health as he cheated death almost as many times as
the proverbial cat. 25 years ago when his oldest grandchild James was 2, he had septicaemia but
with an epic desire to live and see James, it was a very good reason to fight on and enjoy another
25 years of family life.
To his 6 grandchildren who all saw him in the last few days he has always been called Harold.
Maybe this was unconventional, but being named after the Thomas The Tank Engine character,
“Harold the helicopter”, was a name given by those who dearly loved him and he wore it as a
badge of honour.
The main reason for fighting on through so many life changing illnesses including Crohns Disease
for most of his life and a stroke 8 years ago, was to be with, and in recent years, look after his wife
Shirley. Although both of them were in the same Care Home in Watford he did not see much of
her in the last few days, because he was worried about upsetting her.
But in the last few years he totally devoted his life to Mum and would fight hard for the best care
possible. If it slipped, even for a few minutes he would let everyone know.
Going back in time, the Goldzweig family left from Southampton Docks on the 8th February 1950
on the £10 passage to Australia.
Harold met Shirley in 1954 in Sydney at a Habonim meeting. This is how Dad described this
moment in his life….
“I met this rather plump dusky lady at a Habonim meeting which my brother Len had persuaded
me to attend. The initial attraction was the fact that she laughed heartily at my jokes even if they
were not that funny. On the basis of advice given to me by my father. who, whenever he saw a
somewhat overweight lady, would advise; You cannot get enough of a good thing.”
They married two years later at the Great Synagogue in George Street, Sydney and would have
been married for 60 years in October of this year.
They then left Australia on Aliya via a tour of Europe, arriving in Marseilles to board the Zim vessel
“Aliya” bound for Haifa, which he described as a terrible ship as it was her last voyage before being
scrapped.
Life was very basic, they cooked on a wood stove, they had an icebox but no ice or milk to put into
it and if they wanted something they had to trudge over the sand about 2 kilometres each way.
For light entertainment, they would get regular visits on Shabbat by the seller of water melon,
whose camel had a habit of putting his head through their window at Breakfast time, making
Shirley shriek.
Dad was offered to train in Hadera as a Paper Maker. Eventually he was responsible for the
running of the sophisticated paper machinery, working three shifts, six days a week. When the
factory closed, they decided to leave for England with the intention of returning to Israel. Sort of
like a gap year!
They arrived in London in 1963, at the height of the swinging sixties. I arrived a year later and Lee
two years after that. Dad used his skills as a papermaker in Israel to develop a career in
management, completing 25 years with a Dutch Multi National as their UK Director.
It just goes to show that being a trainee Kibbutznik and trainee welder and one of the first Jewish
paper makers in history, was time well spent. He liked to say, “that being the people of the Book, it
made a change for us to provide the paper.”
Dad’s mind was always ultra sharp, even up to the very end, a few days ago he was laughing in the
Care Home with his grandchildren and discussing politics with Jack his brother. There is nothing he
liked more than to be surrounded by his friends and family while trying to solve the problems of
the world, always playing the role of devils advocate just to keep everyone on their toes.
I always though it was interesting that many years before it was fashionable, he warned that we
must preserve the environment for future generations. One of the last things we spoke about was
my little electric car, he loved going in it for our lunches out over the last few months and I think
he thought that it was a small step in our beginning to look after the environment.
Some of you may know that the Goldzweigs have a very interesting family heritage as Dad’s Great
Grandfather, 4 generations back was the first Chief Rabbi of Great Britain. He thought this was
nice to know, but there is a family legend about the lost Goldzweig millions and also a murder,
that he found much more interesting.
Dad you were a fantastic husband, father, grandfather and friend. Lee and I have had so many calls
from family and friends in Israel and Australia and they all said the same thing… “Harold was a
dear friend, who would do anything for them at any time of the day or night and they will
remember all the fun times they had together with him and Mum.”
We have lost a lot of great characters this year including Terry Wogan and Ronnie Corbett and
now Dad.
Myself, Lee, Paul, Tony, James, Sam, Lauren, Louis, Danielle and Eden will all miss him and he will
leave a big gap in all our lives.