On Saturday, January 3rd, we said goodbye to Jan Bernheim at the Cierk on the eastern bank of Ostend, near the iconic “Lange Nelle” lighthouse. At least 300 people from Belgium and abroad were there in the heart of the fishing port to pay their final respects. Despite the large crowd, the gathering ended as Jan, his wife Saartje, and their children had wished: peaceful, tenderhearted, with a family atmosphere.

Jan L. Bernheim (Uccle, August 25, 1941 – Ostend, December 28, 2025) was a Belgian physician, oncologist, professor, and researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University, emeritus since 2006. He was a champion in Belgium for the recognition of palliative care and for the possibility of euthanasia, long before the euthanasia law came into effect. His obituary, next to his academic degrees, states: “member of Another Jewish Voice.”

Jan Bernheim developed an impressive academic career and remained deeply socially engaged throughout his life. He was also a loving partner, father, and grandfather.

It is certainly worth mentioning that he developed Anamnesis Comparative Self-Assessment, a method for measuring quality of life that is transculturally suitable. He founded the European Study Group for Quality of Life, a scientific association in this field of research. At the end of the 1970s, he established the first palliative care unit on the European mainland. As early as 1990, he published on integrated palliative care, which encompasses the entire spectrum of care for quality of life, including, if desired, euthanasia. He is internationally regarded as the designer of the Belgian model of integrated end-of-life care. He was a senior researcher at the End-of-Life Care research group at the VUB and Ghent University. In the last years of his life, he collaborated with the Evolution, Cognition and Complexity research group at the Leo Apostel Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Happiness and Progress.

He called himself a bit Jewish and unequivocally sympathized with Another Jewish Voice. He was unsparing in his criticism of the genocidal and imperialist policies of the current Israeli government. He spent the summer of 1961 on an Israeli kibbutz near Gaza, and even then he noticed the dehumanization that so characterizes the conflict in the region today, as he once wrote in an opinion piece.

In his final months in Ostend, he expressed his solidarity with the Palestinian people and participated in silent vigils.

Jan will be missed by his family and friends… He was a Man with a capital “H.”