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April 07, 2011
Pesach is only days away but the modern day salvation for which we pray was shattered earlier today with news that Palestinian Hamas terrorists in Gaza launched a rocket at a school bus carrying Israeli children – wounding at least three of the children. As we pray for their speedy recovery, we call upon the world’s leaders to unequivocally condemn this act and the environment of anti-Israel incitement that somehow supports the murdering and wounding of Jewish children.
View OU Statement on Terrorist Attack
March 23, 2011
Purim is behind us, but the spectre of Amalek once again revealed itself with an early morning bus stop bombing in Jerusalem that claimed the life of one innocent Israeli and sent more than 50 others to Jerusalem hospitals. Even as the Jewish community continues to reel from the violent terrorist attack in Itamar that stole the lives of Rabbi Ehud and Ruth Fogel and three of their precious children, this most recent attack once again enjoins us to express our solidarity in support of Israel's victims of terror and demand that our elected officials unite with us in decrying these heinous attacks.
View OU Statement on Terrorist Attack
March 11, 2011
The heavens wept and the quiet solitude of Shabbos was shattered as news surfaced of the bloodthirsty terrorist attack in Itamar, Israel on March 11, 2011 that claimed the lives of Rabbi Ehud and Ruth Fogel and three of their children, 11-year-old Yoav, four-year-old Eldad, and three-month old Hadas. The only survivors of this barbaric attack were the Fogels’ 12-year-old daughter, who returned home from a Shabbos oneg to be victimized by the horrific scene, and two younger brothers, age 6 and 2, whose lives were spared, though irrevocably altered, as they slept through their family’s darkest hour.
Assuredly, words are incapable of capturing the feelings of rage, sorrow and helplessness that consume the Jewish community at a time like this. Try as we might to cope with our collective despair, our mandate in the wake of such incomprehensible tragedies must be to rally to the care of the innocent victims. Even as the leadership of the Orthodox Union deafens the world with a fierce cry for justice, we beseech our brothers and sisters to join us in expressing solidarity and support for the innocent victims by contributing to the OU’s Victims of Terrorism Fund.
The Jewish community is forever committed to care for its own and the time will yet come when the sorrow and mourning we share will be transformed into gladness and light.
May the Fogel family and all Israel be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Dr. Simcha Katz