Tragedy In Italy: A Final Resolution

by Noa Blokh – Lubavitch.com

Only days before thirty year-old Amit Biran and most of his family would die in a tragic accident, he pledged to dedicate more time to family and his children.

Amit, an Israeli, was studying medicine in Pavia, Italy, where he lived with his wife and their two sons. His Israeli, wife Tal Peleg-Biran, 26, their 2-year old son Tom Biran, and Tal’s parents–Barbara and Yitzchak Cohen, 71 and 81–who were visiting from Israel, were tragically killed Monday morning in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. They were among the fourteen people who lost their lives on a cable car that hurtled fifty feet to the ground. The young couple’s five-year-old Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of the accident, is in critical condition at a Turin hospital.

Amit worked as a security guard for the Chabad school in Milan, where he was remembered as a much adored member of the local the Chabad community

“He was always smiling,” said Rabbi Shmuel Hezkia, a Chabad emissary in the city. “Local cafes have put out his picture and small memorials for him.”

When Amit was asked by a local Yeshiva student to take on a positive resolution in memory one of Milan’s founding Chabad emissaries, the young father took a few days to think and then made his pledge:

“To dedicate more time every day to [his] family and patience with his children. And to put on tefillin every day.”