metro
A Selfless Soul
Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, a victim of
the Israeli synagogue massacre,
has roots in Oak Park.
Ronelle Grier
Contributing Writer
T
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hose who knew Rabbi
Aryeh Kupinsky as a
young boy growing up
in Oak Park remember him as a
bright student from a loving fam-
ily of kind and giving souls.
After moving to Israel with
his family at age 11, he grew into
a caring and big-hearted adult,
a husband and father who gave
selflessly to his community and
demonstrated his faith by study-
ing Torah and attending services
regularly.
Rabbi Kupinsky, 43, was one
of the victims killed last week
Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky
in the brutal terrorist attack in a
Jerusalem synagogue.
He was one of five people killed at
nificant heightening of law enforcement
the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in the
against those guilty of incitement.
city's Har Nof neighborhood on Tuesday
morning, Nov. 18, when two Palestinian
Active In Community
cousins burst into the morning prayer
Aryeh Kupinsky was born in Rhode
service brandishing an axe, knives and
Island and then moved to Oak Park with
a gun. The assailants, reported to be
his siblings and parents, Bracha and
members of a Palestinian terrorist group, Shlomo, who were professors at Wayne
began stabbing and shooting the wor-
State University. He attended Yeshiva
shippers, leaving a horrific scene of bod-
Beth Yehudah in Oak Park and Akiva
ies, blood and chaos.
Hebrew Day School in Southfield, and
In an ensuing gunfight with police,
was known for generously helping other
both terrorists were killed. Two police
students with their homework, no mat-
officers were wounded, and one of them
ter how long it took
subsequently died from the wounds he
"He was always very giving of his
sustained. Several congregants who were
time," said Hershel Goulson, a California
inside the synagogue during the massa-
resident who became close friends with
cre also were wounded.
Aryeh when the two attended Yeshiva
This attack was the first of its kind
Beth Yehudah together. "He was very
meticulous and organized. He always
in Israel on a synagogue. Israeli Prime
had five or six perfectly sharpened pen-
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered
cils lined up on his desk If you needed
that the homes of the attackers be
a pencil, you knew where to go, and he
demolished as punishment for the
would always lend you one
heinous crimes, and he also ordered sig-
The Kupinsky family belonged to
what is now Young Israel of Oak Park,
where they were actively involved in the
Modern Orthodox community.
"Whenever there was a community
event, they were right in the middle of
it," said Mintzi Schramm of Southfield,
who first met Aryeh's mother, Bracha, at
City College in New York
"They were a wonderful, energetic
family, very intelligent, with happy, lively
kids:' said Rita Schreiber of Southfield,
whose children attended Akiva with
Aryeh.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah student
Ardent Zionists, the Kupinsky family
Aryeh Kupinsky, early 1980s
20
November 27 • 2014
JN