Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Lakewood Jews raise thousands for family of kosher store employee who died of COVID-19

More than $15,000 has been raised in three days for the former employee of a Lakewood, N.J. kosher grocery store who died of the coronavirus.

Lancelot Diaz-Hernandez, 20, passed away after spending two weeks in the hospital fighting complications from COVID and pneumonia, the Asbury Park Press reported.

A GoFundMe page to aid with medical and funeral expenses was set up on Saturday by his friend Getangely, who described Diaz-Hernandez as a “brother from another mother.”

“He was the most selfless, head strong and caring friend I have ever met, and became one of the closest friend to many others,” Getangely wrote. “He lived with his mom (a single immigrant parent) and his older sister. He helped them with money the most he could, he loved them with his whole heart- as he loved anyone in his life.”

More than 350 people have donated, with a combined total so far of $15,000 towards a $25,000 goal. Gourmet Glatt itself donated $500, and many other donors came from the Jewish community in Lakewood, one of the most heavily-Jewish municipalities in the country.

“We join the family in grieving this tragedy,” the store said in a statement. “Lancelot was a fun, caring and dedicated employee who was loved by all. He will be sorely missed.”

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.