by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

With a boost from New Jersey Jewish leaders, a Jewish Agency for Israel program designed to assist survivors and families of those killed or injured in Palestinian terrorist attacks will also assist the Israeli Arabs victimized in a shooting by an AWOL Jewish soldier earlier this month.

Members of the MetroWest community responded quickly to support the JAFI decision to offer emergency aid to Arab citizens of the village of Shfaram, where 19-year-old Eden Natan Zada killed four people aboard a bus and wounded at least 12 others.

Their support was galvanized by Amir Shacham, who directs the Israel office of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. Moments after the Aug. 4 attack in Shfaram, Shacham sat down at his computer and began communicating by e-mail to colleagues in New Jersey.

"I was in the midst of writing a message to the MetroWest leadership under the headline ‘Eden Natan Zada is a Jewish terrorist' when JAFI called and ask for my advice," Shacham wrote in an e-mail to NJ Jewish News .

His caller was Boaz Herman, director of the JAFI's Fund for the Victims of Terror, which has provided nearly $20 million in financial relief to terror victims since the start in 2000 of the Intifada.

Herman was seeking the advice and the consent of American-Jewish organizations about dispensing help to the Muslim, Druze, and Christian-Arab families devastated by Zada's murderous act.

"JAFI came up with the idea right after the attack," Shacham wrote. "I was consulted and told them on behalf of MetroWest, without consulting with anyone, that they should do it, because terror is terror no matter who is the terrorist and who are the victims.

"I know my leadership, and I knew that they would be positive about it," Shacham added. "They were even better about it than I expected."

Joyce Goldstein of Essex Fells, who chairs UJC MetroWest's Israel and Overseas Committee, confirmed Shacham's expected reaction of MetroWest's leaders. "Amir basically told them it was fine because he knew who we were and how we would react to it, and to a person, we all said it was an excellent idea.

"These people are Israelis, and one of the things we are trying to do through our religious pluralism allocations has been to try to create a pluralistic state," Goldstein added. "We didn't weigh the emotional charge that these are Arabs. They are Israeli citizens."

Other local leaders added their praise for the Jewish Agency's move.

"Amir said it was a wonderful idea and everybody here agreed. I have seen no dissension on that part," said Stephen Flatow, the West Orange resident who chairs the MetroWest Community Relations Committee. "These people are Israeli citizens. According to them, they are in a never-never land, but they do enjoy the benefits of a socialist society. It is quite appropriate for them to be included in the same basket of benefits."

Prompt allocations from JAFI's fund are designed to provide victims with "immediate assistance," said Michael Jankelowitz, a press spokesman for the agency.

Speaking by telephone from his office in Jerusalem, Jankelowitz said that such aid reaches victims before the government's slow "bureaucratic process" makes money available for necessary "out-of-pocket expenses" like taxi fares for hospital visits to wounded friends and relatives.

"It is something which is small, but people feel it helps them in the immediate problems they are facing," said Jankelowitz. "These people are coming from a state of shock." Social workers who serve as liaisons between the agency and the people in need make recommendations regarding the amounts of specific individual grants.

Jankelowitz explained that the victim can be "a breadwinner, for example, who has been injured, and there may be no food on the table."

In his capacity as the fund's director, Herman visited Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where survivors of the Shfaram attack are being treated.

"I met with families of the injured and spoke with social workers from the rehabilitation unit and with welfare agencies working in Shfaram," he told NJJN from Jerusalem. "The response was very warm from the families and victims. They appreciated our arrivals to them. We show comfort to them and we explain how we can assist the victims of terror.

"It is the kind of situation that is embarrassing, but the injured really expressed their appreciation of us being there," said Herman. "We represent donors from federations in America and all over the world, and we expressed our condolences."

According to Jankelowitz, it was not the first time JAFI has come to the aid of non-Jews. In previous cases, the recipients were injured along with Jewish Israelis in terror attacks launched by Palestinians. "But this is the first time we have given aid to victims of a Jewish terrorist. The fund was created to assist Israeli citizens. It is not every day that there is an act of terrorism committed by a Jew," he said.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also labeled the attack "a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist."

What also expedited the aid was the close relationship between the mayor of Shfaram and JAFI's new chair, Zeev Bielski, who had been mayor of the nearby city of Ra'anana until his appointment earlier this year. [Ra'anana is a sister city of the MetroWest federation.]

"Having also been the mayor of a city with victims of terror, Bielski felt a bond with the mayor of Shfaram, and he felt this would be the right thing to do from a moral perspective," explained Jankelowitz.

‘Lynch mob'

Flatow, whose own family has been scarred by a bus bombing in Gaza that took the life of his 20-year-old daughter Alisa in 1995, said he is eager for the Israeli military to press its investigations into why Zada, who refused to participate in the Gaza withdrawal, remained at large for days, even after his parents warned that he was unstable.

"The word ‘terrorist' applies to him because he took the law into his own hands and picked out people at random," said Flatow. "At the same time, you have to wonder how this kid, who was portrayed by his parents as not walking a steady line, got a rifle."

Israeli authorities are also considering an investigation into the death of Zada, who was beaten to death by a mob at the scene. Press accounts have focused on delays in the police response.

Flatow said he is also curious to know why residents of Shfaram were permitted to form a "lynch mob" that beat Zada to death.

"It seems this fellow was alive after he was handcuffed by police, and the attack against him might have taken place while he was in police custody. I find it very disturbing that there might be no investigation of what very well might be murder," Flatow said. "I'd like to see whether the government is going to bow to Arab pressure to not point fingers at anybody."

Robert Wiener can be reached at rwiener@njjewishnews.com .

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