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 23_IO_Israel75_AD_DJN_FP.indd 1 23_IO_Israel75_AD_DJN_FP.indd 1