Kobi's Bar Mitzvah

 Kobi's Bar Mitzvah

Kobi's 16 year-old sister, Rachel, was murdered in a 2002 terrorist attack in a Jerusalem supermarket as she went to buy spices for Passover 

December 18 2007

 

For 13 year-old Koby, the joy of reaching his Bar Mitzvah was incomplete. For his 16 year-old sister, Rachel, did not live to celebrate the event.

In 2002, as Rachel went to a Jerusalem supermarket to purchase spices for Passover, a suicide bomber detonated her explosive belt. Rachel and two others were killed instantly, and more then 28 people were wounded.

For Koby's parents, his Bar Mitzvah brought back memories of their oldest son, Guy, who celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at Chabad in California some 20 years ago. The family and Chabad had not been in contact for some two decades. Now, in Jerusalem, at a Bar Mitzvah sponsored by Chabad at the Kotel, they were reunited in a simcha tinged with sadness.