Rabbi Yisroel Porath, codirector of Jewish Learning Initiative at Rutgers Hillel, speaks about Segev Peniel Avichail, 15, one of eight youths killed at Mercaz Harav Seminary in Jerusalem.
March 18, 2008
Segev Peniel Avichail, although only 15, was a boy immersed in Jewish studies who had “a special bond” with his rabbi father.
On March 6 that bond was permanently severed by a Palestinian gunman who killed Segev and seven of his classmates at Mercaz Harav Seminary in Jerusalem.
“I used to see them all the time in shul together,” recalled Rabbi Yisroel Porath, codirector of the Jewish Learning Initiative at Rutgers Hillel.
Porath, who lived in the same Israeli town — Neve Daniel — as the Avichail family, recalled, “You could see they were very close.”
Porath remembered Avichail in an interview with NJJN and during a vigil for the victims held March 12 held on Rutgers’ New Brunswick campus.
Neve Daniel, located in Gush Etzion, is used to being in the line of fire. Porath met the boy’s father, Rabbi Elyashiv Avichail, when they pulled the same guard shift. The two would discuss family, religion, and their lives as they patrolled. Rabbi Avichail is religious leader of Telem and Ad-Olam.
Porath had seen the family while visiting his parents only six weeks before and recalled father and son “learning and praying together.”
He said as he listened to the news on the night of the attack “my heart beat faster and faster” as the victims’ names were announced. When he heard Segev’s name among the dead, he was dumbstruck with horror and grief.
“It was all very painful just hearing of another terrorist attack, but actually knowing one of the victims was very, very painful and heartbreaking,” explained Porath. “It is painful knowing how they will have to rebuild. But it is a strong family in terms of religion and faith. They’ll be able to rise up and come to terms with the tragedy.”
Segev was the oldest of four children and grandson of two renowned rabbis; one was instrumental in bringing Jews from India to Israel, and the other was a respected teacher.
Porath said Neve Daniel itself is trying to come to terms with the murder. “People are just trying to get through the seven-day mourning period. But there is a lot of anger.”
Segev was both idealistic and goal-oriented, and Porath said Rabbi Avichail described his son as “blessed by great strength.”
According to Porath, Segev, who was studying in the seminary’s library at the time of his murder, was a student at the adjacent yeshiva high school. He was buried on the Mount of Olives.
Porath grew up in Cleveland, made aliya with his family at age 11, and served in an infantry unit in the Israel Defense Forces. He and his wife, Shoshana — who also serves as codirector of the Jewish Learning Initiative — came to Rutgers in September as emissaries.
“It’s very hard to talk about something in another part of the world,” said Porath. “My body is here but my spirit is there.”
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