Terror victims mourned in Jerusalem – and beyond
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Thousands of Israelis mourned at the funeral of three of the victims killed on Tuesday, November 18. Here, women stand on playground equipment, hoping to be able to see the ceremony. Miriam Alster/Flash90 |
TEL AVIV – They all lived on the same street. They had all moved there from abroad. They were all rabbis. They all prayed at the same synagogue.
And it was at that Jerusalem synagogue that they were all murdered on Tuesday morning.
Mosheh Twersky, 59, Kalman Levine, 55, Aryeh Kupinsky, 43, and Avraham Goldberg, 68, were killed when two cousins from eastern Jerusalem entered Kehilat Yaakov Synagogue, in the haredi Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, wielding a gun and butcher knives. The attackers, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, injured eight others before they were killed at the scene by Israeli police.
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An Israeli Druze police officer – Zidan Saif, 30, of the Druze village of Kfar Yanouch – died on Tuesday night of injuries suffered during the attack
Twersky, Levine, and Kupinsky were Americans. Goldberg was from England. All of the men were buried in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“We are here, standing in front of these three holy men, the best of our community, Torah scholars whose blood flowed like water,” said Rabbi Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin, the chief rabbi of Kehilat Yaakoy, according to the Times of Israel.
Twersky, the head of the Toras Moshe Yeshiva, was the eldest grandson of the influential American Orthodox scholar Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchik. Twersky left behind his wife, five children, and 10 grandchildren.
Rabbi Menachem Genack of Englewood, CEO of the Orthodox Union’s Kosher Division and a student of Soleveitchik, knew Twersky for most of his life and said that “he was in every respect extraordinary,” noting “his kindness, his stunning brilliance.
“He was a great scholar,” Genack said. “You saw his devotion to his students and their love for him. He was reserved, very insightful. He came from the most exalted rabbinic family and yet he was just so humble.”
Levine, who is survived by his wife, nine children, and five grandchildren, grew up in Kansas City, Mo. He was born Cary Levine and attended the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy there. A friend told the Kansas City Star that he was a “gentle soul with a kind heart.” His son eulogized him as a diligent scholar.
“My father would study all day long and would return home at night only to learn some more until he would fall asleep in his chair,” the son said, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “Abba, you were in the middle of saying the Shema when your soul left your body and the terrorists came and murdered you.”
Kupinsky, who also emigrated from the United States, leaves behind his wife and five children. He lost a daughter, Chaya Chana, who died in her sleep two years ago at 13. According to the Foreign Ministry, he was known to be very generous and was a daily worshipper at the synagogue.
Goldberg, who moved to Israel in 1993, is survived by his wife, six children, and grandchildren. His friend from the neighborhood, David Osborne, remembered him as devout and kind.
“He was the most wonderful person you could meet, a pillar of the community,” Osborne told the British Jewish News. “Avraham prayed there most days for the last 10 years or so. He was a devout Jew with no political agenda. All he wanted was to live a peaceful life.”
The terrorists in Tuesday’s attack were identified as Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal.
JTA Wire Service
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