Denis Levy

Born: November 15, 1931 in Shanghai

Died: January 15, 2026

Biography:
The following eulogy was given by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough
Denis Levy: Yosef Rachaman ben Shlomo Ezra v’Vera
Born: November 15, 1931, 5 Kislev 5692, Shanghai,
Died: January 15, 2026, 26 Tevet 5786, Vancouver
Buried: Congregation Emanu-El Cemetery, Victoria, January 20, 2026, 2 Sh’vat, 5786

Denis is home. A statement that sounds so simple and yet, for a man whose life held loneliness, longing, and displacement, today’s return is a blessing. His story is both entirely his, as each of our life stories are, but is also that quintessential Jewish story of precipitous leave-taking, of not fitting in, of a soul that holds so many threads of beginning, and God willing, finally becomes a cloth woven with the weft of family and the warp of time.

Denis was born into the Sassoon family – his father Shlomo was born in Calcutta. The storied Sassoon name takes us back to 12^th century Spain, through Aleppo, to Baghdad; then many left Baghdad for India and China. By the 18^th century, the family became known as the Rothschilds of the East, their name still associated with business, trade, shipping, synagogues and Jewish life. His mother, Vera, was from Irkutsk, Siberia, another important trade route between Europe and Asia.

By 1931, the family was living in Shanghai; when his father heard the warning signs of imminent betrayal of Jews, he moved his family. Continuing their family lineage, they journeyed across the ocean, and Shlomo and Vera brought their boys to Vancouver Island.

At seven years, Denis was enrolled in the Mill Bay Boarding School (now Brentwood College) where his older brother, Albert Ezra Levy, was also attending. It is hard to imagine a more alien atmosphere for a young Jewish lad from Shanghai than that bastion of Island gentility. But Denis grew to deeply love this island of ours.

He loved fishing with his father in the Cowichan River in Duncan and 70 years later, he said that his memories of fishing had returned to him. He said that when he closed his eyes, he could see the grasses of the riverbank, the dancing waters. Perhaps fishing, that most elusive of sports, a test of will and skill between man, line, hook, and fish resonated on some subliminal level with Denis’ past. The qualities of patience, strategy, persistence – are the hallmarks of both his family and his beloved pastime.

Denis loved music, and in an email he spoke about the pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch, with whom the family were apparently related:

Re: Benno.” I remember him so well – a great big shaggy Russian – Rachmaninoff was known to say he wished he could play his music like Benno – once he, almost a teetotaller, said this to Benno, who was very self indulgent, and Benno said before I go out on stage I have a glass of Crème de Menthe – Rachmaninoff thought this was ridiculous, but one day he did just that, drank a glass of Crème de Menthe, went out on stage and played like Benno – it became known as “The Crème de Menthe Variations”

Our cousin, Benno, was perhaps the greatest pianist of his time.”

Vera took Denis as her escort everywhere artistic – such as Victoria then had to offer; they had seasons tickets to the symphony and the opera. Perhaps that maternal love instilled his own lifelong love of the arts. They may have been expats in Victoria, but a mother’s love for music and all the arts, filled his soul too.

Eventually he worked as a Realtor, property being in the family DNA, he married briefly. He had no children, but he dearly loved his nieces and nephews with a loving generosity, built perhaps from his own experience of childhood loneliness. Denis was that man both that singular and universal.

Yosef Rachaman was able to transform himself into a man who never spoke ill of another, a man who found his home in waters and riverbanks, a man, who like his beloved salmon swimming an epic journey of return, has now also returned home. May Yosef Rachaman be welcomed into HaShamayim, the heavenly waters of life found in God’s compassion, and may his memory be a blessing.

Parents:
Vera Levy
Solomon “Sidney Levy

Sibling:
Albert Ezra Levy