Letter to the Editor

Dovid Asher

It has come to my attention that associate professor Julio Pino penned a eulogy on behalf of a Palestinian teen a number of years ago. As I grapple with the trauma of the recent violence in Israel, allow me to share a eulogy as a form of catharsis for the recent tragedy of the murder of a Jewish woman, Dafna Meir.

Translated: From Natan Meir, whose wife Dafna was murdered Sunday by a knife-wielding terrorist, was the last to eulogize her at her funeral Monday morning. It was a short, poetic, extremely touching tribute to a mother of six – including two adopted children – and a dedicated nurse.

“We met as soldiers on the border with Lebanon. It took us but a moment to fall in love. I said to you then, ‘Welcome.’ I say to you now, ‘Farewell.’ We are only thankful for every moment we had together. You left me six treasures. I will watch over them for you. Renana, 17, Akiva ,15, Noa, 11, Ahava, 10, Yair, 6, and Yaniv, 4. They will always be unique and imprinted with your seal.

Dear Father in Heaven, I have no second thoughts about you at all. Give us strength, be present in our home, let us feel your warm embrace, and your love.

My Dafna is one in a million. One in a million who grew up in a troubled home and managed to rebuild herself and give kindness back to the world.

Dafna wore a large crown: the crown of truth. She was very honest, as accurate as a razor. Not everyone liked that but everyone was able to appreciate it, and this truth has now been thrown to the ground, it has burst into smithereens.

I request that everyone who came out here, pick up something from the light that was spilled on the ground so that truth may spring from the Earth.

My dear Dafna’leh, thank you for every moment with you and please forgive me for every moment in which I hurt you. Our love is too great to be a passing thing. Rest in peace and stand in eternity with all of the departed of Israel and we shall all say Amen.”

Editor’s Note: Dovid Asher is the rabbi at Keneseth Beth Israel, and says he wrote the Letter to the Editor after researching Julio Pino after news broke of the allegations Tuesday night, in order to bring light to what goes on in Israel.