A Chabad-Lubavitch girls’ school in Melbourne, Australia has found a unique way to honor the memory of five members of an Israeli family murdered by two teenage Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists.
The Beth Rivkah Ladies College released 100 blue balloons Wednesday morning in solidarity with Israel and in memory of the slain Fogel family.
Each student attached a note to the balloon with a mitzvah (commandment) they would take on in their memory.
Wednesday is the first anniversary of the Hebrew date of the deaths of Rabbi Udi Fogel, his wife Ruth, 11-year-old Yoav, 4-year-old Elad and 3-month-old Hadas, who were brutally stabbed to death by teenage Arab terrorists.
The attackers sneaked into their home while asleep in their beds after having enjoyed a Friday night Sabbath meal in their Samaria community of Itamar.
Their 12-year-old daughter Tamar discovered the slaughter when she arrived home later that night after attending a Bnei Akiva event. Her two other young brothers miraculously escaped being murdered because they were simply unnoticed by the two killers, cousins Amjad and Hakim Awad.
Both escaped to the nearby PA Arab village of Awarta, where they live and where the terrorists were hidden by neighbors, relatives and friends until the authorities eventually tracked them down.
Neither murderer expressed remorse at their subsequent trial for the crimes, and both said had they known there were others in the home they would have killed them as well. Both have been sentenced to life in prison.