The body of Auxiliary Police Officer Eugene Marshalik exited the I.J. Morris Funeral Home as police officers stood saluted paying their respects. Police helicopters flew low over the procession. (NY Sun.)
Apparently one of the auxilary policemen killed in the Greenwich Village shootling last week, Yevgeniy (Eugene) Marshalik, who was also an NYU sophmore, was Jewish. (The funeral arrangements were made by the I.J. Morris Funeral Home in Flatbush.)
The Jewish Week reports:
… Dr. Marshalik said he and his wife Maya moved with their two small sons, Yevgeni (the Russian variant of Eugene) and Maxime, from the southern Russian city of Pyatigrosk to New York in 1994 because of concern about political instability in nearby Chechnya and their desire to ensure their sons a more stable environment in which to grow up.
A standout student, Eugene was selected to attend the elite Stuyvesant High School in Lower Manhattan, where as a freshman he witnessed the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Dr. Marshalik believes the impact of 9/11 contributed to his son’s decision to get involved in police work and announce to his parents that he planned to become a prosecutor.
“Eugene was a very kind, even soft person, and my wife and I certainly didn’t raise him to be a hero,” he said. “Yet, when he made up his mind to do something, there was no way to talk him out of it.”
Marshalik said that his son cared deeply about politics and issues involving the environment. “Yevgeni was committed to making the world a better place and was a wonderful human being,” he said.
Why not much, if any, titter about this on our favorite NYC-based JBlogs? Perhaps because the death of a Jew who apparently was not Orthodox did not rise to the level mandating coverage. I wonder what the response would have been if Officer Marshalik had been attending Touro, Lander or YU?
By the way, the deaths of the two auxilary officers has spurred a campaign to get bullet proof vests (and, perhaps, stun guns, as well) for the police auxilary. More information on that here.
UPDATE – YeshivaWorld did cover the funeral, pointing out that a haredi police chaplain made arrangements and prevented the autopsy. It has pictures from the funeral (prominently featuring haredim from the Chevra Kadisha, Jewish burial society). But as far as I can tell by reading and searching, no Jewish blogs – not Hirhurim, or Ezzie's, or any other OJ outlets, including CrossCurrents – mentioned this. Marshalik was a Russian Jewish immigrant who wanted to serve his adopted country and gave his life doing so, right on the streets of New York. One really must ask what the JBlog coverage would have been if Marshalik attended YU, Lanner or Touro (all OJ schools) or had been shot down on the streets of Jerusalem. And that is my point.