Ilan Rasooly and friends could often be found splitting a meal at Ben Yehuda Pizza. Since the 20-year-old’s death in 2014, his family has vowed to keep Ilan’s memory alive with the very pizza he loved growing up in Kemp Mill.
“We were pretty devastated,” Rebekah Rasooly, Ilan’s mother, said of her son’s passing. “We wanted to do things that would remind people of [Ilan] but also inspire happiness and gratefulness and joy because he was a happy and joyful and grateful person.”
Today, the Kemp Mill resident and her husband sponsor a slice of pizza from Ben Yehuda Pizza for local children every year on Ilan’s birthday, Nov. 10, in his memory. This year, Rasooly and Ben Yehuda Pizza served more than 400 free slices of pizza despite the chilly temperatures.
She also extends the free slice of pizza to students at The Gan Montessori school in Silver Spring, which Ilan attended, and her grandchildren’s school in the greater Philadelphia area.
“There was nothing that Ilan Rasooly loved more than pizza,” a flyer advertising the event read.
The first Slice for Ilan Day in 2015 served about 300 children, according to Rebekah Rasooly. That number has steadily risen to 400 and even 500 in recent years.
Annually gifting pizza to local kids has kept Ilan’s memory alive. “He was a wonderful, sort of silly guy,” Rasooly said. “He grew up in this community, and in the best tradition of 9 [through] 12-year-old boys, one of his favorite activities on a day off from school was he and his friends would pool all their money — all $7 or whatever they had — and walk to [Ben Yehuda Pizza].”
“This is what little boys do and they loved it,” she added.
In college, Ilan was elected president of the Center for Jewish Living, Cornell University’s Orthodox Jewish community. He attended the hotel administration school, reflecting his passion for hospitality and helping others.
“The pizza is just a small thing that reminds us of him,” Rasooly said. “He had a full and beautiful life and an excellent scholastic achievement and lots of friends. He’s a wonderful person.”
She said the delight on the faces of pizza-loving children is reminiscent of her son’s happy-go-lucky personality.
“My fondest hope is to see the little ones … who wait for this event every year,” Rasooly said of Slice for Ilan Day. “To see that unvarnished joy … reminds me of Ilan each year and I love it. I love that the kids look forward to it.”
Giving back to the local community is important to Rasooly, in order to keep Ilan’s memory “alive within the community that he lived.”
Because the target audience of Slice for Ilan Day is so young, most of them didn’t know him.
Sachy Cohen, a manager at Ben Yehuda Pizza, reminds younger community members of the day’s significance: “I make a point of making sure they know what it’s about: ‘This is a free slice in honor of Ilan Rasooly; it’s not just free slice night.’”
People who knew Ilan remember him fondly, writing emails to Rebekah Rasooly or stopping to chat about the “jolly redhead.” She hopes the community will continue to maintain her son’s legacy positively.
“It makes me cry every time I think of [Ilan], and this is a way of remembering him without people crying,” Rasooly said.
She also expressed gratitude to Ben Yehuda Pizza owner Josh Katz and the staff: “They’ve been more than wonderful, more than gracious, … and we are so grateful to them for being such good neighbors and good partners.”
That gratitude extends both ways.
“I think it’s an honor that they chose us to facilitate [Slice for Ilan Day],” Cohen said. “I know that the reason they chose us is because we were his favorite pizza, so it’s an honor that we get to keep someone’s memory alive like that.”
Rasooly said this annual tradition is a celebration of Ilan’s life “in the best Jewish tradition of doing things in someone’s memory.”
“These are things that those people would have done themselves had they lived,” she added. “And [Ilan] was a person who brought joy, so this is continuing in that idea.”
