My wife and I have lived in Petach Tikva ever since we made Aliyah to Israel more than ten years ago.  Our location in the Kfar Ganim Gimmel neighborhood has excellently suited our needs.  Unfortunately, a senseless murder occurred here the evening of Yom HaAtzmaut; Yemanu Binyamin Zelka was stabbed to death by a gang of unruly youths as he departed from his workplace at the local Pizza Hut establishment.

By all accounts, Yemanu was an upstanding member of society, an IDF veteran who sought to support his family.  Much of the crime particulars remain under a gag order embargo as this is being written, but some suspects who have already been arrested are said to have criminal records.  The parents of one or more of the gang members are said to also be persons of interest in the police investigation.

Viewing the photographs in the news stories, I realized that I had seen Yemanu Zelka in the Pizza Hut store when I was there a few weeks ago.  The vicious killing, which occurred approximately 300 meters from our apartment building, is not the first one in which I had some sort of recent prior personal encounter with the victim.

The 1996 murder of high school girl Kristin Scarabelli in the Long Island, New York community of East Northport where my wife and I lived before we made Aliyah also hit close to home for us in both the figurative and literal senses.  We knew Kristin more by face than by name as the young lady gainfully employed at the fruit and vegetable store we regularly patronized.  As Kristin’s murder continued to be unsolved, members of our shul justifiably feared to venture out in the evenings; this made many of us reluctant to engage in activities that entailed us walking on Shabbat, when we could not use our automobiles.

Before the arrest of Kristin’s killer was announced, my wife and I relocated to a larger house in the neighborhood; a house very close to where Kristin had lived and where her lifeless body was found.  We chose the location on account of its many positive attributes, despite the uncertainty that pervaded the atmosphere on account of the then-unsolved horrific crime. Now, thirty years later, the people of East Northport have not forgotten.  Kristin’s friends and family are mobilizing to oppose the parole of Kristin’s killer, Stephen Manolis, who is scheduled for a hearing before the New York State Board of Parole this coming June.

But even before those two worthy individuals’ lives were cut short, two-and-one-half year old Becky Holt was murdered in Philadelphia in 1959.  Unlike Yemanu and Kristin, with whom my familiarity was incidental at best, I knew Becky personally as a frequent playmate.  As detailed elsewhere, Becky’s murder had several family ties to my own, and I was playing with her at her home a few days before she was killed, as my mother was visiting her mother.

This blogpost is being written as a diversion from my wife and I packing up our personal chattels in preparation for our relocation up North to bring ourselves closer to our grandchildren.  By the time you read this, my wife and I may well be physically in motion towards our new home if not already have begun to unpack and settle in.

For more than three thousand years, we and all other Jewish people have been taught that there are rules which we are required to follow.  While nobody is claiming that we have been totally compliant with those rules one hundred percent of the time, few if any deny that we are obligated to obey those rules, and that there are consequences that eventually will befall those who breach those rules.

The breach of those rules by the killers of Yemanu Binyamin Zelka has inflicted consequences upon our Kfar Ganim Gimmel community which, if the example of Kristin Scarabelli’s killing in East Northport is any indication, will persist for many years.  It is hurtfully unfortunate that my wife and I are concluding our residency here on such a negative note.  We are, however, reassured by the outpouring of support for Yemanu’s family from the community, and the public demands for better security measures. We are confident that the good people of Kfar Ganim Gimmel will move forward from this tragedy.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)