by Debra Rubin
NJJN Bureau Chief/Middlesex

March 06, 2008

The death of a 47-year-old Israeli man in a rocket barrage near Sapir College in Sderot last week echoed painfully among Jews in New Jersey, where two professors from the college had only recently spoken about life under the threat of Kassam attacks.

Roni Yihye was a career soldier studying logistics at the college. He was in a car parked next to the college as a barrage of at least 40 rockets from Gaza struck factories, homes, and Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon in the western Negev on Feb. 27. Yihye suffered massive chest wounds in the attack. Five years ago, he underwent a kidney transplant in the United States.

Several others were wounded, and many were treated for shock, in attacks that helped spark a ground and air offensive by Israeli forces against Hamas militants.

Yihye had ties to the MetroWest community through Merchavim, a sister city to the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ under the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program.

The head of the Merchavim Regional Council, Avner Mory, was Yihye’s distant relative. Yihye, a father of four, and his family had also been involved with the Youth Futures program, run in cooperation with the Jewish Agency.

“Everyone on the Merchavim Steering Committee knows him, so we felt his loss as closely as you can feel any family member’s loss,” said David Lentz, a UJC MetroWest Partnership 2000 cochair.

Earlier last month, two Sapir professors visiting Rutgers University gave a harrowing account of the trauma caused by the unending missile attacks that have plagued the area around Sderot.

The two professors, Dr. Ruthie Eitan, head of the college’s overseas program, and Dr. Uri Bibi, chair of the college’s department of human resource management, were hosted by Rutgers’ School of Social Work in an appearance arranged by the Israeli consulate in New York.

At that time, they spoke of how fortunate Sapir had been that no students or faculty members had been killed there. Some 2,400 missiles hit the campus and the surrounding Sderot area since the Hamas-led government came to power in Gaza in the summer of 2005.

Eitan was in the parking lot where the missile exploded and witnessed the carnage.

‘Never giving in’

Yihye is survived by his wife, Esther, and four children: Niv, who is serving in the Israel Defense Forces; daughters Lital, 17, and Coral, 14; and youngest son Idan, eight.

On March 3, members of MetroWest’s Partnership 2000 committee in Israel visited the home where Yihye’s family was observing shiva. “We plan to reach out during the shloshim [30-day mourning period] to see if there is anything we can do for the family,” said Lentz.

Lentz added that the help offered may include enrolling Yihye’s children in summer youth programs to get them out of the house or securing job retraining for his widow so she can support her children.

He expressed confidence that despite the missile bombardment, Sapir College would not close.

“Never happen,” he said. “Israelis are extremely sensitive about giving in to the enemy. Even if they have a drop-off in enrollment, they will not close because that gives the Arabs a victory. Part of the Israeli ethos is never giving in to terror.”

In announcing Yihye’s death in an e-mail to NJJN, Daniel Greenberg, deputy director of academic affairs at the Israeli consulate, said Yihye was the 11th Israeli civilian “to be randomly murdered” as a result of rocket fire from Gaza.

“In one of his lectures, I remember Professor Bibi commenting that they’d been ‘lucky’ so far, but that the moment a student is killed it would mean the end of Sapir College,” wrote Greenberg. “I can only hope that he was wrong.”

Sharon Regev, director of academic affairs at the consulate, and Andrea Yonah, executive director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission, worked together to bring the two professors to Rutgers.

Ironically, the two were at another Rutgers facility working on an agricultural research initiative when they got the call about the Sapir tragedy.

“I have to tell you it is very hard to believe,” said Regev in a phone interview. The two professors “were just here not much more than a week and a half ago, and now their worst fears have come true.”

Yonah said she felt especially moved when Eitan called about Yihye’s death, because she had met the Sapir faculty member.

“I was just very upset about the situation and felt very emotional about it,” Yonah said. “I was so touched by her story and then that person calls and you hear her voice shaking and you realize both professors’ worst fears had come true — it really brings it home.”

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‘Great sadness’

United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ issued the following message on Feb. 29:

To the communities of Merchavim and Sha’ar HaNegev,

Roni Yihye

The Jewish community in MetroWest New Jersey has had long relationships with the Merchavim and Sha’ar HaNegev Regions in Israel. We have formed friendships with so many people in Merchavim, in Sha’ar HaNegev, and at Sapir College. Therefore, the news of Roni Yihye’s death in a rocket attack on Sapir College on Feb. 27 has brought great sadness to our community.

To us, Roni is a hero. We know that Israel’s future depends on ordinary people who continue to live their lives in the face of danger. Roni chose to attend Sapir College, in spite of the rockets. That was an act of courage.

Many of you in Merchavim and in Sha’ar HaNegev make similar courageous choices every day. We wish you hazak v’amatz [strength and courage].

Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you all and with Medinat Yisrael in these difficult times.

Kenneth R. Heyman
President

Max L. Kleinman
Executive vice president
United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ

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