B’nai B’rith Gift Helps Support Israeli Children Who Lost One or Both Parents to Terror Attacks

B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Director Alan Schneider presented on Nov. 18 a donation from the B’nai B’rith Edith “Pat” Wolfson Endowment in support of Israeli orphans to the children of Rabbi Shai Ohayon (39): Tohar (13), Hallel (11), Shilo (9) and Malachi (4). Ohayon was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist on August 26 while on the way to collect his children from educational institutions. The attacker, Khalil Doikat (46), held an Israeli work permit and was employed at a construction site. The Palestinian Authority has begun to rebuild his home in the village of Rujib near Nablus, which the IDF demolished on Nov. 2 as a deterrent measure.

The presentation was made as part of the World Center’s project to support Israeli children who have lost a parent or both parents to terror and disease.

The presentation was made to Ohayon’s widow, Sivan, in the family home in Petach Tikva near the Segula Junction where Doikat stabbed her husband to death. Ohayon, a full-time student at a religious institution (kollel) in the nearby town of Kfar Saba, was a respected and prominent figure in his neighborhood and teacher of Torah lessons. Sivan Ohayon described her husband as a man of “truth, simplicity, joyousness and faith” who was intimately involved with the rearing of their children.

The World Center has been charged with administering the Edith “Pat” Wolfson Endowment grant since its inception in 2005. The following previous grants have been made:

2006 – To Salomon (14) and Channan (13) Yaakobov, whose father Yaacov was killed in 2006 by a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza to Sderot that penetrated the roof of the factory where he worked.

2007 – To Sara (10), Rivka (9) and Devorah (8) Ben-David whose mother, Hadassah (Yelena), was murdered on Nov. 21, 2002 by a Palestinian who detonated a bomb aboard a crowded morning rush hour Egged commuter bus. Hadassah (32), a first-year math teacher, died along with 10 other civilians on their way to work and school, including Hodaya Asraf (13); Marina Bazarski (46); Sima Novak (56), Kira Perlman (67), and her grandson Ilan Perlman (8) Yafit Ravivo (14); Ella Sharshevsky (44) and her son Michael (16); Mircea Varga (25), a tourist from Romania; and Dikla Zino (22). Fifty people were wounded in this Hamas-perpetrated attack that occurred on Mexico Street in Jerusalem's Kiryat Menahem working-class neighborhood.

2009 – To the seven children of Meir Avshalom Hai, murdered in December in a drive-by terrorist shooting on the road from his home in Shavei Shomron to Einav in Samaria.

2010 – To the six orphans of Yitzhak and Talya Ames who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists on August 31,  alongwith two other residents of Beit Hagai: Kohava Even Hen (37), mother of a 10-year-old daughter and newly-married Yeshiva student Avishai Shindler (24) at the Bani Na’im junction between Hebron and Beit Hagai.

2011 -  To Tamar (12) ,Roi (8) and Yishai (2) Fogel whose parents Udi (36) and Ruth (35) and three siblings Yoav (11), Elad (4) and Hadas (3) were brutally stabbed to death in their beds on March 11 by two Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated their home in the northern Samarian community of Itamar.

2012 -To Lior (7), Lihi (4) and Itamar (8 months) Shushan whose father, Yossi was killed on August 20, by a Grad rocket fired from Gaza.

2013 – To Liron (12) and twins Guy and Agam (4) whose mother Anat Even Haim (34) was murdered by gunman Itamar Alon in a shooting attack at a branch of Bank Hapoalim in Beer Sheva on May 20.

2014 – To the four children of Sergeant Major Bayhesain Kshaun. Kshaun was killed by an anti-tank missile fired at an IDF force responding to a terrorist infiltration on July 21, as part of Operation Protective Edge. A career tracker for 21 years, Kshaun made Aliya from Gundar Province in Ethiopia in 1988 and served in the opening days of the operation with the Givati Brigade. His widow Galitu gave birth to their youngest daughter Tal Or, 10 days after her husband was killed.

2015 – To Laren Sayif, the infant daughter of Israeli police officer Sgt. Zidan Sayif who was killed in November 2014 as he confronted two Palestinian terrorists who were engaged in a gruesome attack on the Kehilat B'nai Torah synagogue. Four rabbis were murdered in the attack – leaving 24 children fatherless - and eight other worshipers were wounded – four of them seriously. Sayif and another officer managed to kill the two terrorists, but Sayif was killed in the exchange of fire. A second distribution from the fund was made to the five children of Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, one of the four victims in the attack.

2016 –To Yael Weissman for the benefit of her 7-month-old daughter, Neta. Their husband and father, St.-Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman (21) was murdered on Feb. 18 while trying to protect fellow shoppers from two 14-year-old knife-wielding terrorists at the Rami Levy supermarket branch at Sha’ar Benjamin. Weissman, a combat sergeant in the IDF’s Nahal Brigade on a week-long leave, was shopping prior to Shabbat with Yael and Neta when he heard screams from a different aisle. Realizing immediately that a terrorist attack was in progress, Weissman, even though he was unarmed, ran to confront the terrorists as other shoppers fled the supermarket. He was the first to reach the terrorists who had begun their stabbing spree and was the only victim to die of his wounds in the attack. In recognition of his heroism, the IDF submitted to Yael Weissman’s appeal that his tombstone state that he “fell in battle” rather than “fell while on duty.” The supermarket where he was killed employs both Israelis and Palestinians and is popular with both Israeli and Palestinian shoppers. The store has become a symbol of coexistence, though it has been targeted several times.

2017 - To Irin Satawi to benefit her infant child Ramos whose father, Druze police officer Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Hayil Satawi (30), was murdered on July 14th by three Israeli Arabs at the Temple Mount along with his partner First Sergeant Kamil Shanan (22), just two weeks after the child – his first – was born. The presentation was made in the family home in the northern Druze village of Mrar (Maghar).

The B’nai B’rith England First Lodge donation went to the five children of Elad Solomon: Avinoam (11), Reut (9), Amitai (5) and one-year-old twins Ariel and Avishai - murdered on July 21 at his parents’ home in Neve Tzuf along with his sister and mother. The presentation was made to their mother Michal who valiantly rescued the children by barricading herself with them in an upstairs room while a Palestinian infiltrator murdered her husband and family during Friday night dinner.

2018 - To Yael Shevach to benefit her six children: Renana (11), Neomi (9), Miriam (7), Milka (5), Ovadia (4) and Benayahu (1) - whose husband and father, Rabbi Raziel Shevach (35), was murdered on Jan. 9, in a drive-by terrorist attack near their home in the settlement of Havat Gilad. Shevach was a religious educator and a mohel who helped save lives in his volunteer work with the Magen David Adom national rescue organization. Ahmad Nassar Jarrar, the 22-year-old head of the terror cell responsible for Shevach’s murder, was shot dead by security forces in a raid in the village of Yamoun, near Jenin, on Feb. 6. The presentation was made in the family’s home in northern Samaria.

A second donation was made to the four children of Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal (29), a teacher at Bnei Akiva Yeshiva in Givat Shmuel, who was murdered in a stabbing attack near the entrance of Ariel on Feb. 5 while on his way to a family event. His children are Avital (6), Daniel (5), Roni (3) and Avraham (1).  The presentation was made to their mother, Miriam, also a teacher, who continues to live in the family’s apartment in the Har Bracha settlement. Ben Gal’s assailant was a 19-year-old Israeli-Arab resident of Jaffa, Abed al-Karim Adel Assi, the son of an Israeli mother and Palestinian father from Nablus. Al-Karimi arrived at the Ariel Junction bus stop and stabbed Ben Gal from behind. Ben Gal ran to a bus that had stopped at a nearby station while his assailant gave chase. Reaching the bus, the rabbi knocked on its door for help before collapsing. The terrorist then fled the scene. An off-duty Israel Defense Forces officer who witnessed the attack then chased the assailant in his car and rammed him. Despite being hit, al-Karim was able to escape with the help of an unidentified driver who picked him up near the scene of the incident. On March 18 he was captured in Nablus with several other suspects who had helped him hide.

2019 - A gift from the B’nai B’rith First Lodge in England was made on Succoth eve to the 12 children  of Rabbi Achiad Ettinger (47):  Moriah (22), Efrat (21), Eliashiv (20), Harel (18), Eliasaf (16), Yehuda (14), twins Tehiya and Tzofia (12), Benia (10), twins Eliav and Hadas (8) and Roni (2). The presentation was made to Ettinger’s widow, Tamar, in the family home in the town of Eli, in the Binyamin Regional Council. Ettinger was murdered in a terrorist attack at the Ariel Junction on March 17. Despite being shot in the neck and head, Ettinger turned his car around and pursued Palestinian terrorist Omar Abu Laila (19) who had stolen a gun from soldier Gal Keidan who he shot and killed before firing on passing cars and pedestrians. Ettinger managed to fire four shots at Abu Laila before succumbing to his wounds, dying a day later despite efforts at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva to save his life. The family donated his organs.

Ettinger had dedicated most of his efforts to supporting Jewish life in several south Tel Aviv neighborhoods. was the head of the Oz V’Emmunah yeshiva that he established in a boarded-up synagogue in the Neve Sha’anan neighborhood, once home to a thriving religious community.

Ettinger was described as a hero for his courageous effort to confront the terrorist despite his egregious wounds, a selfless act performed without consideration for the personal price he would pay. Rabbi Achiad’s sister Rachel is the widow of Yosef Tuito, a member of the emergency response team in Itamar, who was killed during a terrorist infiltration in 2002. Tuito was shot dead in a gun battle with terrorists after they entered the home of the Shabo family murdering the mother and three sons.

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Alan Schneider is the director of B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem, which serves as the hub of B'nai B'rith International activities in Israel. The World Center is the key link between Israel and B'nai B'rith members and supporters around the world. To view some of his additional content, click here.

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