Children’s Letters Console Family of Murdered Israelis

Children and parents from New Zealand to New York, stunned by the March 11 massacre of five members of Itamar, Israel’s Fogel family by Palestinian terrorists, have penned countless letters of support to its orphans, extending words of comfort, love and support.

Wielding knives, the terrorists broke-in to the family’s hilltop home on a Friday night, attacking and murdering Udi Fogel, 36, his wife Ruth, 35, and three of their children – Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and three-month-old Hadas – while they slept. Three survived: 12-year-old Tamar, who was at a youth group meeting, eight-year-old Ro’i, and two-year-old Shai.

“Dear Tamar, my name is Tamar as well. I am almost 11 years old,” wrote Tamar Lilienthal of Florida. “I may be very far away from you, and I may not even know you, but I want you to know that you are in the hearts and prayers of thousands of Jewish people daily, including myself.”

Hundreds of similar missives were compiled by the Judaism website Chabad.org and passed along to Rabbi Menachem Kutner, director of the Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel’s Terror Victims Project, a Kfar Chabad-based organization that helps rebuild lives shattered by terror attacks. Kutner delivered a bound collection of the letters to the family on May 1 at the Jerusalem home of Ruth Fogel’s parents, who are currently raising the remaining children.

“I am just your age and I do not know how you are so composed and strong,” wrote Estee Silberberg of Chicago, Ill. “I look up to your bravery and courage, and my heart goes out to you. In honor of your dear parents’ and siblings’ memory, I have taken upon myself to be especially nice and patient with those who annoy me. I wish you all the best from the bottom of my heart.”

“It is true that we have never met, but we are all one family, one people, and we have but one G-d,” wrote Elianna from California. “He has never left us, nor will He leave you at this time. The lives of your loved ones will remain in your memories and in the memories of those who held them dear. Remember and they will always be a part of you.”

Kutner said relatives were touched.

“It strengthens us greatly to know that there are people on the other side of the world that are thinking of us and took upon themselves positive resolutions,” Yehuda Ben Yishai, Ruth Fogel’s father, told him. “We feel that we are not alone and that Jews and non-Jews around the globe give us strength and support to cope with this difficult situation.”

Toward the end of the visit, Kutner stood off to the side as little Shai Fogel scampered playfully around the house, his grandparents prodding the unwilling toddler to shower before dinner. Watching them, Kutner’s heart sank in sadness.

“As a father of young children I thought that in a normal house, the father and mother do these games when the child doesn’t want to shower in time, but here in this house that is over,” he recalled. “These are some of the small facts of life that build a whole world for a child without a father and mother. But I consoled myself by focusing on the fact that the children have these amazing grandparents who are showering them with love.”

The mood at the home of Udi Fogel’s parents in Neve Tzuf, a small community in the southern foothills of Samaria where Kutner also visited, was equal parts pride, sorrow and tremendous gratitude for the gift of the children’s notes.

“There was a sense of astonishment,” said Kutner. “They said they would keep them and show them to members of their extended families. We sat with them for a relatively long time. The grandfather said that the most difficult moment was that Friday night when he took his surviving grandchildren who survived from their home in Itamar to his house in Neve Tzuf. There was a long silence. He was scared to speak. He didn’t know what the children saw, what they knew or what they didn’t know. That silence was one of the hardest moments for him.”

Judging from letters like Yosef Sayegh’s, people the world over share in the family’s pain.

“When I heard of the terrible tragedy that had happened, I cried like a baby,” Sayegh, a 15-year-old boy in New York, wrote. “What happened to you was cruel and whenever I think about it, my heart is left torn. … I look up to you very much and I just don’t know what to say. You have to stay strong, for your brothers who need you [and] for your parents who are watching you every second of every day.”