* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Julie, the mother of hostage Bar Kupershtein, a paramedic working as a guard at the Nova festival, writes as follows:
“Shalom Sivan,
This week I was thinking about Bar’s tefillin that are waiting for him in our home and thought that someone who does not put on tefillin could put on Bar’s.
So yesterday evening, with the help of Riki Siton, director of the Chavruta-Ayelet HaShachar organization, this idea was shared on social media. Until now, 15 (!) men who do not put on tefillin at present but want to do so have accepted our offer. I just spoke with the individual who will take Bar’s tefillin and start putting them on. This is a dear Jew who stopped putting on tefillin eight years ago but will return to putting them on now.
Our Bar has many merits. His father, also a paramedic, was seriously injured in an automobile accident and is confined to a wheelchair. Bar, our eldest son, took upon himself financial responsibility for the entire family, and the reason he was working at Nova was to earn some extra money. Bar’s grandfather, who is a Holocaust survivor, and his grandmother eagerly await him at home. Bar was captured after engaging in repeated life-saving acts of courage. And now Jews everywhere have started putting on tefillin in the merit of Bar Avraham ben Julia.
Many of those putting on tefillin are further publicizing this initiative on their own. Therefore, we need donations of tefillin sets in order to satisfy the growing demand for them.
Meanwhile, I await the day when Bar’s tefillin will be returned to him upon his return home . . .
Julie.”
