Yannai Segal, 23, is cheered by students from Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva for his work assisting special-needs children in learning mishnayot to commemorate the murder of eight Israeli yeshiva students last year and for organizing the Feb. 24 siyum at the school.
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March 3, 2009
The same love of Torah shared by eight students murdered last year by a Palestinian terrorist at the Mercaz Harav Seminary in Jerusalem is living on through students at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison.
The school’s fifth- to eighth-graders pledged to learn 800 mishnayot— rabbinic commentaries on Jewish law — to honor the memories of the slain youths. Second- and third-graders learned with the assistance of teachers during their lunch period.
On Feb. 24, the one-year yahrzeit of the killings, the accomplishments of the 80 students at the Edison school were celebrated at a breakfast convocation, or siyum.
But despite the joy expressed by Gross “for having infused the world with more Torah,” there was sadness over the loss of the young lives in a senseless act of violence. Prayers of mourning were recited and students watched a short film about the tragedy, which occurred March 6, 2008.
“Eight living Torahs were taken from us,” said RPRY Principal Rabbi Shraga Gross. “Our job is not to do less. Our job is to learn more.”
Rabbi Steven Miodownik of Congregation Ahavas Achim in Highland Park recalled visiting the seminary once on Yom Yerushalayim, commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem.
He watched as thousands of yeshiva students dressed in white shirts and blue pants marched to the Western Wall at about midnight.
“They spent most of the night there praying,” said Miodownik.
The eight students were gunned down by a Palestinian who had previously been a driver for the yeshiva. The shooter was killed by an off-duty soldier.
Jacob Siegel of East Brunswick reads at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison during a Feb. 24 commemoration for eight Israeli yeshiva students killed by terrorists last year. Looking on is the school’s principal, Rabbi Shraga Gross.
Rabbi Steven Miodownik of Congregation Ahavas Achim in Highland Park urges students at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva to “fill the world with seeds of Torah” in response to the senseless deaths of eight Israeli yeshiva students.
Photos by Debra Rubin
Miodownik read the names of each of the slain students and called them “young men who dedicated their lives to Torah, mitzvot, and Eretz Yisrael.”
“I urge you not to forget these names,” said Miodownik, but rather, like the slain scholars, “to fill the world with seeds of Torah.”
Referring to the murders, he added that “there was no reason why this happened,” but reminded the gathering that “the face of Hashem is hidden sometimes.”
Miodownik said this concept of “hester panim,” or the hidden face of God, is often associated with Purim and the Book of Esther.
“Hashem is never mentioned in the book, but he is there behind the scenes,” said Miodownik, who noted that sometimes God wants humans to act on their own behalf.
“In all our lives at one time or another we have to make a decision. We can remain silent…or we can raise our voices and be a part of Jewish history.”
Moshe Siegelman, an eighth-grader from Edison, said he volunteered to learn mishnayot to “show our appreciation for the eight boys.” He added the experience “really meant a lot.”
“Despite the fact we didn’t know them, we feel their pain,” said another eighth-grader, David Margulis of East Brunswick. “It was a terrible tragedy and we felt we wanted to commemorate it.”
A culture of caring for Israel
Students at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison have made support of Israel a priority.
While students in some grades took on a learning project in memory of eight yeshiva students murdered in Jerusalem last year by a terrorists, fourth-graders raised money to send pizza and other provisions to Israeli soldiers on the front lines.
Principal Rabbi Shraga Gross said one fourth-grader was so caught up in the project, she donated $170 that would have gone toward her own lunch.
“They were filling out the school lunch program form and she began pleading with her mother to give this $170 to the soldiers rather than her own lunch,” he said. “It was just remarkable how she internalized this. She is now brown-bagging it.”
Students at the school also donated about $4,000 to the nonprofit organization Connections Israel to send eight buses of children from Sderot and the surrounding area to an amusement park for a day. The area has for years been the target of rockets fired from Gaza.
“Rabbi Gross always talks to us about Israel and makes us feel very proud,” said Emma Mael, an eighth-grader from Highland Park. “We’ve been talking about what these children go through when those sirens go off for the Kassam missiles.”
Eliana Moskowitz, an East Brunswick eighth-grader, noted that girls in her grade baked and sold hallahs and sent the profits to Israel.
“I love Israel and I attribute that to RPRY,” she added.
— DEBRA RUBIN
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