Hundreds attend circumcision of Salomon baby, born day before terror attack
Child receives middle name after his late grandfather, Yosef, killed in Halamish by Palestinian terrorist; aunt, uncle also murdered in stabbing
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Hundreds of people gathered in a synagogue in central Israel Thursday for the circumcision ceremony of the son of Shmuel and Chen Salomon, three of whose family members were murdered in a terror attack in the Halamish settlement last Friday night while celebrating the new baby’s birth.
Leading the ceremony in Elad was former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who announced the boy’s name as Ari Yosef Salomon.
Through intermittent sobs, the new father Shmuel explained that while they had decided on the name Ari before the attack, it had gained new meaning after his family members fought like “lions” against the Palestinian terrorist last Shabbat eve. The Hebrew word for lion originates from the same root as the boy’s name.
The boy’s middle name was chosen to honor the baby’s grandfather, Yosef Salomon, killed in the attack.
Addressing a crowd so large that latecomers were forced to watch the ceremony on TV screens outside the synagogue, Shmuel Salomon said his family had chosen to open the event to the public “so that the Salomons would be remembered as joyous and special rather than sad and hurt.”
Last Friday evening, 19-year-old Omar al-Abed burst into the Salomon family’s Halamish home from a nearby Palestinian village armed with a large knife and stabbed to death Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya Salomon, 46, and son Elad Salomon, 36. Shmuel’s mother and Yosef’s wife Tova, sustained serious stab wounds during the attack; she was temporarily released from the hospital to attend the circumcision.
The seven-day shiva mourning period was paused for the religious ceremony.
Among the hundreds present at the brit (circumcision) was Halamish resident Yosef Rimmel, a longtime friend of the late Yosef Salomon.
“I sat behind him in synagogue, and Tova was the kindergarten teacher for four of my five kids,” he said.
Rimmel kept his composure throughout the ceremony. However, when the baby’s middle name was announced, the 57-year-old broke down.
“It’s difficult to comprehend how this could happen to such a good friend,” he said.
Zvi Lando, a cousin of Elad’s widow Michal, flew in from New Jersey immediately after Shabbat.
“The rabbi at our synagogue spoke about the attack during services on Saturday morning, but we did not know it was them until after Shabbat ended,” he said.
Praising the strength of his newly widowed cousin, Lando pointed out that he’s “never once seen her without a smile on her face. The same could be said about Elad, who had cared so deeply about his kids,” he said.
While family members admitted that it was supposed to be a festive ceremony, grief and longing seemed to be the overwhelming feeling in the Elad synagogue Thursday.
“How did we fall into this world?” Michal’s father Dan Lando recalled her daughter asking earlier in the day. “Just a week ago, we were a normal family.”
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