10 | APRIL 20 • 2023
guest column
Senseless
S
enseless.
The cold-blooded murder of
three peaceful women, Lucy Dee,
48, and two of her four daughters, Maya,
age 20, and Rina, age 16, was a senseless
act of … lunacy.
These women were my
neighbors; we lived in the
apartment upstairs from
them. Their sister Tali
babysits for my young
children, and their father
and I are friends, and we
spent much time in shul
together.
The attack occurred while the family
was on an outing (tiyul) on the way up
north in two compact cars for a few days
during the Passover holiday. The attack
began with gunmen possibly ramming and
firing their AK-47s at the car driven by
Lucy with Maya and Rina as passengers. It
appears that Lucy was shot and eventually
crashed. Her daughters were killed while
removing their injured mother from the
wreck, when the gunmen followed up to
finish their terror. Emergency services
arrived about 20 minutes after the crash,
and Leo, who had been driving in front of
Lucy, only heard about it on the radio and
turned around immediately.
“Lucy was evacuated by helicopter to
Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center
while she was in critical condition, where
the teams have been fighting for her life
over the past few days, in the trauma
unit, in the operating room, and in the
intensive care unit where she was treated,
”
according to news released by Hadassah
Hospital. “Unfortunately, despite supreme
and relentless efforts due to [her] injuries,
”
staff declared her death three days after the
terror attack.
As of this writing, the gunmen remain
at large.
As Rose Kennedy, among others said,
“It’s wrong for parents to bury their
children. It should be the other way
around.
”
Yet, my wife, Shaina, and I joined
thousands of friends from near and far at
Kfar Etzion cemetery Sunday afternoon,
April 9, to watch their father, Leo Dee, do
just that. Lucy’s funeral was noon, April 11.
Leo and children Tali, Keren, and
Yehuda began their daughters’ and sisters’
funeral procession on Sunday to the cem-
etery, or levaya, which means “accompa-
nying,
” accompanied by thousands more
along the route from their home.
On Saturday night before Maya and
Rina’s joint funeral, some 300 of the young
women’s friends and classmates, as well
as other youth from Efrat, gathered in the
Efrat Center mall plaza in the Dee’s Zayit
neighborhood to sing, cry, and console and
strengthen one another. Social services and
grief counselors circulated and talked with
them as they began processing the unbear-
able pain and loss.
Simultaneously, more than 500 people
joined together for an evening of prayer
and Psalms to strengthen the Dee family,
for Lucy’s recovery, and for community at
the Zayit Ra’anan Synagogue, where the
Dees attend. Hundreds more streamed the
evening into their homes.
These were meaningful expressions of
love for the Dee family and horror at the
senseless destruction of wonderful people
who had their lives in front of them. We
were not unique in hugging our children
tightly on Friday when we heard the news,
first of the attack on someone’s children
and then the bombshell that it was our
friends.
Leo said at the funeral that he had been
asked how he has such emunah (faith) in
the face of his unspeakable loss. He shared
lessons from Rabbi Efrem Goldberg’s class-
es: “There is one main formula for emu-
nah. Always focus on what you do have
and not on what you don’t have. I still have
three wonderful children — Keren, Tali
and Yehuda and my wife, Lucy.
” (The next
day Lucy died.)
The Dee women’s murders occurred
near Hamra, just off the highly traveled
Highway 90 in the Jordan Valley, “… hours
after Israeli air raids targeted Lebanon and
Gaza,” according to Al Jazeera.
Mind you, the air raids occurred after
nearly three dozen missiles were fired at
Israeli civilians, schools and medical facil-
ities by Hamas and other groups unwilling
to negotiate or fight the Israeli Defense
Forces. More than 24,000 such missiles
have been launched against Israelis since
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
So, how does killing Lucy, Maya and
Rina Dee advance the Palestinian cause?
How does it give them what they want, be
it negotiations, more control, more money,
a state or what?
How is this act one of “resistance” to the
most chill “occupation” in history?
“Peace will come when the Arabs love
their children more than they hate us,
” said
Golda Meir to the National Press Club in
Washington, D.C., in 1957. Two bi-nation-
al peace treaties and the Abraham Accords
with four Arab countries and counting
have demonstrated that Arab states seem
to get it.
But not some of our more immediate
and intimate neighbors.
Instead, they still hate us for existing. For
living. For being.
Senseless.
Nathaniel and Shaina Warshay made Aliyah with
four children in 2019, and moved to Efrat in 2020,
when they first met and befriended the Dee family.
Nathaniel Warshay, formerly of Oak Park and Detroit,
is a philanthropy professional and writer living in
Israel and working raising funds for the Netzach
Educational Network.
PURELY COMMENTARY
Nathaniel
Warshay
Lucy, Maya
and Rina Dee
$10 per person. Children 5 and under free. Register today: jewishdetroit.org/75
Thursday, April 27, 5:00 pm | Congregation Shaarey Zedek
5 PM
Activities and booths for all
ages and kosher Israeli food
6 PM
Official Israel@75 Celebration
6:30 PM
A special show by world-renowned
Israeli dance troupe Mayumana
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