Frum leaders condemn murders

Leaders of observant Jewry have unequivocally condemned last week’s stabbling of marchers in Jerusalem’s gay pride parade. The attack resulted in the death of 16-year-old Shira Banki.

Outrage also followed the arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a baby, although culpability for that crime has not been established.

The pride-march killer, who had been released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence for attacking a similar parade in 2005, was dressed in haredi garb. 

“Those who committed this heinous act is criminal in every respect,” said Jerusalem’s chief rabbi, Aryeh Stern.

Rabbi Stern visited wounded victims in a hospital, saying, “It is a day to pray for the safety of the wounded.”

Shira’s parents said they “are aware just how many tefilos were recited in private for her recovery.” They said they “have no argument with people with kippot or beards. Our quarrel is with intolerance, with hatred.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu promised that “we will not allow a despicable killer to undermine the shared values underpinning Israeli society.”

Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi David Lau said “this is not the way of the Torah.”

Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said, “It cannot be that a man should rise up and as if in the name of religion raise his hand against a soul of Israel.”

Rabbi Benny Lau, who leads a modern Orthodox congregation in Jerusalem and is related to the chief rabbi, told a Tel Aviv rally on motzei Shabbat: “All the worshippers in all the synagogues in Israel heard today the Ten Commandments. In the name of what Torah, in the name of what G-d, does someone go and murder, do people go and burn a baby and his entire family?”

 “The Torah is a Torah of light, and Judaism must illuminate the world,” he said.

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Also read:

• Parsha of the Week by Rabbi Avi Billet: Awful week in Israel: The criminals are not us.

• From the Heart of Jerusalem by Rabbi Binny Billet: Recalling Sbarro as we suffer fanatics in our midst.