Ditmas Park residents will come together on Sunday to remember — and grieve for — Josh Rubin, the neighborhood cafe owner who disappeared on Halloween, only to be found murdered in Pennsylvania.
Temple Beth Emeth of Flatbush on Marlborough Road offered to host Sunday’s service after Jan Rosenberg — the real estate agent who brokered the deal for Rubin’s business, Whisk — spoke to congregants about holding some kind of remembrance for the beloved cafe owner.
“He had a lot of friends in the neighborhood and it’s good for us to honor that,” said Rabbi Heidi Hoover, who will lead the service — Brooklyn’s first chance to publicly mourn Rubin’s death. “We want to give his friends a chance to say goodbye to him here.”
Rubin was laid to rest last week in Rhode Island, his home state, after he was identified as the man who was shot, set on fire, and dumped on a desolate Pennsylvania road less than 12 hours after he left his home on Lawrence Avenue.
Since his disappearance, news surfaced that Rubin had money problems and, possibly, selling drugs.
Yet Hoover, who has been soliciting remembrances from family and friends for the past week, says she’s been introduced to a very different Josh Rubin — one who was both passionate and driven to succeed.
“What has stood out to me is the expansiveness of his personality, he was very memorable to all who met him,” said Hoover, who said the service will remember who Rubin was — not how he died. “A memorial service is less about trying to piece together what happened than it is trying to remember the person he was.”
Memorial service for Josh Rubin at Temple Beth Emeth of Flatbush [83 Marlborough Rd. between Church Avenue and Albemarle Road in Ditmas Park, (718) 282-1596] on Jan. 8 at 4 pm. Send remembrances to rabbihoover@gmail.com.
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow his Tweets at @from_where_isit.
