Worshipers Return to Har Nof Synagogue

Rabbi Moshe Twersky, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, Rabbi Kalman Levine, and Aryeh Kupinsky, the four victims that died during the terrorist attack on the Har Nof’s Kehilat Bnei Torah Synagogue were laid to rest on Tuesday afternoon at the Har HeMenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem. President Reuven Rivlin took part in the funerals along with thousands of other individuals who arrived to pay their last respects to Tuesday’s victims of terror.

 

Shortly after the funerals of the four victims of the Jerusalem synagogue attack on Tuesday were underway, dozens of worshipers entered the “Kehilat Bnei Torah” synagogue in Har Nof to pray. The blood stains were all cleaned out, but the signs of the massacre that took place in the early morning hours were still evident, mostly the shattered windows from the gunfire. Worshipers read the Shema prayer – “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” Later, they read chapters from Psalms.

As a security guard stood at the entrance to the scene of the attack, Har Nof’s Kehilat Bnei Torah Synagogue, the prayer-goers were joined by two members of Knesset, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett of Bayit Yehudi and MK Dov Lipman of Yesh Atid. Since the attack, there security has been increased in the city, as well as all the areas past the Green Line. The Arab neighborhoods in the city were also fortified with cement barriers at their entrances and exits.

Master Sergeant Zidan Nahad Seif was among those injured in Tuesday’s terrorist attack. The Officer tried stopping the attack on the synagogue when he was hurt. Unfortunately the 30 year old officer has succumbed to his wounds and died in the hospital. His funeral was held today in his hometown, Yanuh-Jat in the Galilee in Israel’s north.

The officer was one of the first two police officers to arrive at the synagogue in Har Nof where two Arab terrorists murdered four Jews with hatchets, knives and guns. He was shot in the head during a gunfight with the two terrorists, who were killed by police. Seif joined the police in April 2011 and served as a traffic control inspector in Jerusalem. He was promoted posthumously to First Sergeant. Seif is survived by his wife and infant daughter, as well as his parents and five siblings.