Thousands gather to mourn US Jewish student imprisoned in North Korea

WYOMING, Ohio — Hundreds of mourners gathered Thursday to celebrate the life of a Jewish American college student who was detained in North Korea for over a year and died shortly after being returned home to Ohio in a coma.

Otto Warmbier’s brother, sister and friends were among the scheduled speakers for the funeral Thursday at a high school in his hometown of Wyoming, near Cincinnati. A rabbi was officiating at the public service, which was closed to the news media.

Rabbi Jake Rubin, executive director of the Brody Jewish Center at the University of Virginia, called Warmbier “one of the most intellectually curious people I’ve ever met” during the service.

US Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, told the throng of reporters stationed outside that Warmbier was “an amazing young man” from a resilient family and that North Korea must be held accountable for what happened to the 22-year-old University of Virginia student, who died Monday.

“This college kid never should have been detained in the first place,” said Portman, who previously revealed that he met secretly with North Korean officials in New York last December to press for Warmbier’s release. He said North Korea’s treatment of Otto demonstrated “a basic disregard for human rights, for human dignity.”

Warmbier was accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting North Korea in 2015 and was later convicted of subversion. His family said they were told that he had been in a coma since shortly after he was sentenced to prison with hard labor in March 2016.

After he returned to Ohio, doctors determined he had suffered a “severe neurological injury” of unknown cause. Warmbier’s family objected to an autopsy, so the Hamilton County coroner’s office conducted only an external examination of his body and is still trying to determine his cause of death.

It was his life that held mourners’ attention Thursday as they fondly remembered a spirited student-athlete who was socially magnetic and had a positive impact on the people around him, whether it was in class, at a swim club or in his travels.

His former soccer coach, Steve Thomas, said Warmbier came from a religious family and was involved in mission trips and a Birthright trip to Israel.

“He had a deep desire to know God in a personal way,” Thomas said. “He wasn’t big on doing things because he was supposed to do it. He did things because he wanted to do them.”

A handout for the funeral featured a photo of Warmbier posing next to his mother and included a quote from his salutatorian speech in 2013: “This is our season finale. This is the end of one great show, but just the beginning to hundreds of new spin-offs.”

About a hundred people were turned away from the funeral as the auditorium holding roughly 2,000 people was filled to capacity. The attendees included Ambassador Joseph Yun, the US special envoy who traveled to Pyongyang to bring Warmbier back.

During his incarceration, Warmbier’s family was advised to keep his Jewish background and identity concealed while officials tried to negotiate his release, a negotiator told The Times of Israel.

That was because the North Korean justification for his imprisonment centered on a dubious claim that Warmbier had stolen a propaganda poster in a Pyongyang hotel lobby on orders from the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, to bring it back “as a trophy” in exchange for a used car worth $10,000.

“We didn’t want to share it,” said Mickey Bergman, who worked on negotiations for Warmbier’s release, referring to the fact of Warmbier’s Jewishness. “The family chose, rightfully so, not to share that information while he was in captivity… because they didn’t want to embarrass [North Korea] by explaining that he actually was Jewish” and thus would not have been affiliated with the church.

“That’s why that part of the story was kept quiet,” added Bergman, executive director of The Richardson Center, an organization founded by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson that works to negotiate the release of prisoners and hostages held by hostile regimes.

Warmbier was visiting the reclusive Asian nation on a New Year’s student tour in January 2016. He was arrested just before departing Pyongyang International Airport. Earlier in his trip, he was briefly detained for taking down a sign on a staff-only floor at the Yanggakdo International Hotel, where he was staying.

Almost two months later, he appeared at a staged news conference, clearly under coercion, where he gave a tearful confession and begged for forgiveness. It was there that North Korean officials told CNN their belief of the church’s role in the incident.

Warmbier was convicted shortly after his public confession on charges of committing a “hostile act” and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. His trial lasted one hour.

“If that’s what their story is, there’s no point fighting it if your objective is to get him out,” Bergman said. “When you realize he’s Jewish, you realize how ridiculous that claim is.”

After Warmbier’s release last week — in a coma and suffering severe brain damage — reports surfaced that he had gone on a Birthright trip in 2014 and subsequently became active with his campus Hillel at the University of Virginia (UVA).

During his visit to Israel, Warmbier was given a Hebrew name and wrote a blog post about his experience visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City for the first time.

“The Western Wall was a truly incredible experience for me,” he said. “Just being at a spot that has been so central to Judaism for thousands of years was completely surreal. The power that emanated from the wall showed on the faces of all those who were near it.

“When I was forced to step away to avoid holding up the group for the third time, it honestly felt like saying goodbye to a loved one,” he went on. “It was difficult to wrap my mind around the concept of such a pinnacle — I had done what so many Jews wish to do. Each year at Channukah, my family finishes the prayer by saying ‘next year in Jerusalem.’ For me, it was this year in Jerusalem. And this day at the Western Wall.”

The Cincinnati native’s mother was Jewish and he identified as such throughout his life, according to a source familiar with the matter.