Michal Levine’s father, Rabbi Kalman Levine hy”d, was brutally murdered along with three other Jews at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood last Tuesday by two Arab terrorists armed with hatchets, knives and guns, who went on to murder a Druze police officer as well.
Levine spoke to Arutz Sheva about her father in front of the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue where he was murdered, saying “my father was a man of truth, and that truth…was implemented in actions of love towards all humanity.”
She learned of the attack while in Miami, Florida where she lives via a night-time call from an aunt.
“At the start I didn’t understand. When I started to digest I broke out in crying and shouted, it was insufferable pain,” said Levine.
Flying to Israel to take part in the funeral was a strengthening experience for Levine, who recalls “I found myself with a Chabad rabbi and a leftist couple from Israel. They cried together with me and we spoke, and through the conversation I was really strengthened. I understood that my father was a victim for the general public.”
“He would want that this occasion would bring within us unity,” said Levine. “The last thing he would want is any anger or hatred to develop through this.”
Elaborating on this point, she added “I know there are people who want to take revenge, that’s not the way of my father, he wouldn’t have wanted vengeance in his name. He believed that every person has a role. There are those with good roles and those with evil roles.”
“He cared so much about every individual,” recalled Levine. “He died because he was a Jew, without harming anyone, and it’s painful, but yet every person we still see as good.”
Speaking about the synagogue behind her, Levine said “always these walls of the synagogue will be witnesses of my father’s figure, what a special man of truth he was.”
“I thank the whole nation of Israel that is with us in sorrow and it’s important for me that the message that comes out to all portions of the people – religious, secular, leftists and right-wingers – be that my father didn’t see a person according to their sector, he wanted contact with everyone through empathy.”
