Lubavitcher Terror Victim Recounts Ordeal

by Menachem Rephun – JP Updates

Last Wednesday night, Israeli Lubavitcher chosid Mendy Rivkin was stabbed by a 17-year-old terrorist in Givat Ze’ev, while walking with his wife. Rivkin, 40, was transported to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek hospital. His attacker was chased down and subdued by locals before police arrived. Speaking to reporters from his hospital bed, Rivkin recounted the terrifying ordeal.

“I went out with my wife to have a meal,” Rivkin said. “Suddenly I felt two blows to the shoulder and I felt all the air go out of me. I told my wife that I’d been stabbed twice.”

“I immediately went into a store. I pushed my wife with me by instinct as I fell. I got the coat off and lay down on it. I was cold. Again I shouted that I’d been stabbed.”

At that point, Rivkin adds that he “felt the life seep out of me.”

Rivkin attributes his survival to divine providence, carried out through the paramedics who saved his life.

“The feelings are unpleasant ones at first,” Rivkin acknowledges, “but on second thought I decided that I will not let [the terrorists] scare me or give a prize to terror under any circumstances. We will raise our heads and win.”

Rivkin referred to the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, R’ Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s stance on conceding land to the Palestinians.

“The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that just by talking about handing over territory, we are endangering millions of Jews,” Rivkin said. “We are utterly forbidden to talk about handing over territories in any way, in any diplomatic context. It must stop.”

“It has caused damage, and there are thousands who did not get to reach a press conference like this. I got to rise from the dead, in a certain sense, maybe just to send this message and say – ‘Guys, this is our land. God gave it to us as a gift. Under no circumstances can we give it up.”

In Rivkin’s view, “We must start raising our heads because we are a wonderful nation. We need to stand tall because we can beat this thing. We can attack all those who are challenging us.”

“So guys, let’s win, and with God’s help we will succeed. And stop thinking about handing over territory. We need to defeat terror in the toughest way possible.”