The Day Four Rabbis Were Slaughtered By Terrorists in Jerusalem

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Rabbi Goldberg on left   and Rabbi Twersky on right, I believe...

November 18, 2014 was a day that the newspapers told of 4 rabbis praying in a synagogue in Jerusalem, evidently the Kehillat Yaakov Synagogue,  were slaughtered by terrorists.  One of them, the British born Abraham Shmuel Goldberg, was my newly-found cousin who had been helping me with my genealogy long-distance from Jerusalem to Oregon.  

Avraham Shmuel Goldberg was one of four people killed when two people attacked worshippers with knives, axes and guns. The attackers were shot dead by police. The other rabbis murdered were Rabbi Moshe Twersksy, Rabbi Arieh Kiepansky, and Rabbi Kalman Levi.

Prayer book full of blood, prayer shawl was under it.   

Avraham was born in 1946, right after WWII in London.  Rabbi  Goldberg worked as a chemical engineer in London and Israel, specializing in the pharmaceutical industry.  He was also involved in setting up educational facilities in Jerusalem to allow religious students to learn more about the secular world, a man after my own heart. His wife was Bryna and he was the father of 5 girls and a boy.  He died far too soon at 68.  

  Rabbi Twersky's funeral

Rabbi Rubin told the participants not to seek revenge for the deaths of the four Jews who were killed by two terrorists from East Jerusalem who raided their morning prayers with guns and meat cleavers.  (Twersky is a Hasidic dynasty of rabbis.  They were from Chernobyl, Russia, founded by Rabbi Menahem Nahum of 1730-1797, who was a pupil of the Baal Shem Tov, known as the maggid of Chernobyl.) 

 

The funeral procession of people who came to pay their 

last respects to terror victim Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 

Kupiensky, Goldberg and Levi.  

(Photo: Ido Erez)  

Rabbi Moshe Twersky, a victim of the Jerusalem synagogue terror attack, was laid to rest on Tuesday.  Rabbi Moshe Twersky, a 59-year-old immigrant from the US, b:1955,  and prominent Jewish figure in the Jewish community of Agassi Street in Jerusalem, was one of the four Jews killed during the terror attack on Tuesday morning. 

"He was a big and righteous man during his life – not just after his death," Rabbi Shmuel Aurbach, a leader of the Lithuanian community, said in his eulogy at Twersky's funeral.

 

"He was so close to God during his holy life and was murdered in the middle of his prayers, while T'filin was laid on his head," said Rabbi Aurbach.  

                             Rabbi Goldberg

A cousin of Rabbi Goldberg, Michelle Hirschfield from north-west London, said he was a peaceful man with no political involvement. She said: "My cousin, Rabbi Abraham Goldberg, [was] born and brought up in Liverpool and then lived and worked in London before going with his family to live in Israel.                      

The two Palestinians who carried out the attack, Jerusalem's deadliest in six years, were shot dead.

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a harsh response.

He ordered the homes of the attackers to be destroyed and called for the people of Israel to stand together in the face of a "wave of terror".

Jerusalem has seen weeks of unrest, partly fuelled by tension over a disputed holy site.  Muslims call the site al-Haram al-Sharif and believe it is the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven - to Jews it is Temple Mount and marks the place where the sacred temples of their faith stood in ancient times.'    

There was no justification for such an attack.  Three of the victims were dual Israeli-US nationals, the US state department has confirmed, while the fourth was a dual Israeli-UK citizen. The funerals of the four men - all rabbis - have been held in Jerusalem, with thousands in attendance.

PM Netanyahu said this was a "terrible attack at a time of prayer" and condemned what he termed the "shouts of joy" from the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip after the attacks.

He said he was strengthening security on the streets of Jerusalem, without giving details.

PM Netanyahu called on the people of Israel to "stand together as one" but added that it was "forbidden for anybody to take the law into their own hands, even if their blood is boiling".

Earlier, the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement saying: "The presidency condemns the attack on Jewish worshippers in their place of prayer and condemns the killing of civilians no matter who is doing it."

US President Barack Obama also condemned the attack, saying: "There is and can be no justification for such attacks against innocent civilians."

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said it had carried out the attack.

This happened 9 years ago.  Israel is still facing the same problems.  The many unforgotten murders of innocent and good people are not forgotten, but affect the citizens.  Can anyone understand this?  

Research:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30092720

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4593478,00.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138941253/avraham-shmuel-goldberg