David Robinow, a 2015 graduate of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, was a classmate of Ezra Schwartz, the 18-year-old American yeshiva student killed by a terrorist on Nov. 19 as he was volunteering in the Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank. Robinow is on a gap year program at Yeshivat Ashreinu in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, which combines Torah study with volunteering and hikes. Robinow was also supposed to be volunteering with Schwartz but was behind schedule due to studying later than normal that day according to his mother, Margie Robinow.
According to JTA, the group of American yeshiva students told Israel’s Channel 2 that they had been in the minivan delivering snacks to soldiers stationed in the area when they came under fire, killing their fellow student.
Margie Robinow explained the young men from Yeshivat Ashreinu took a cab twice a week, always with the same regular driver, to towns in the Gush Etzion region.
“They visited sick children and made them balloon animals, or they brought treats, or they played games with kids in the preschools. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}They were always doing things to help and to cheer people up,” said Margie Robinow, who was interviewed by Fox 4 News on Saturday night after Shabbat.
She continued explaining that the terrorist was in a car driving along the shoulder of the road while the other cars were lined up in a traffic jam at a large intersection and bus stop area. The terrorist had an automatic weapon and drove up next to the car and point blank sprayed the car with bullets. Another person, a Canadian/Israel teacher who was well loved by the community, was murdered on the side of the road as well.
“It’s all horrible. As Rabbi Gotch Yudinm Ashreinu’s head rabbi, ‘It’s the unthinkable and it happened. The family and boys are dealing with the trauma of terror,’ ” Margie Robinow said.
The terrorist was shot by security people.
“He is alive and being well cared for in an Israeli hospital,” Robinow said.
Schwartz was a second cousin of Dr. Howard Rosenthal, a former president of BIAV and an orthopedic oncologic surgeon in the area. He was also interviewed by Fox 4 News, and described Schwartz as brilliant and “an unbelievable athlete.” He attended Schwartz’s funeral through a live stream feed that was broadcast internationally that several thousand people tuned into. Dr. Rosenthal will be attending shiva in Boston this week with the family.
Both Margie Robinow and Dr. Rosenthal want those in the area to understand how terrorism affects Israel.
“I’d like to see the world understand that all this terrorism is the same, it’s the same thing,” Robinow told Fox 4, “Israel has been fighting this in the same way that Paris and Beirut and Kenya, and everywhere else is fighting terror.”
Dr. Rosenthal told the television station all the recent terrorist attacks affect everyone.
“People have to realize that what happens in other parts of the country, other parts of the world, other religions, while it may not affect them personally at that one time, it does affect other people, and it`s a supreme loss,” Dr. Rosenthal said.
The students of Yeshivat Ashreinu have created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a memorial for Ezra Schwartz at the park he was heading to when he was killed. Donations may be made by visiting https://www.gofundme.com/ezrafund.{/mprestriction}