The Quiet Erasure of Jewish Artists in America
10 min read
Twenty-eight Israeli civilians were killed by Iranian missiles. Among them: a Holocaust survivor, a child cancer patient, Muslims, and entire families. Their stories reveal the human cost behind the headlines.
Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” is now behind us, but many families have been destroyed by Iran’s ballistic missiles and cluster bombs fired into civilian population centers in Israel.
Twenty-eight civilians were killed by Iranian missiles. (The Israeli military feared that the death toll of civilians would be between 400-700.) The damaged buildings can be rebuilt, but the lives of the victims cannot be resuscitated. Moreover, approximately 3,000 people in Israel were wounded by the missile bombardments.
The 28 victims are not just a statistic. Each person was a world of his/her own. Iran’s missile attacks did not care if the victims were Jewish, Moslem or Christian. The intent was to blow Israel into oblivion. Here are some of the victims.
Yvette was killed in an Iranian missile attack in the city of Petach Tikvah, which is in the center of the country. She was killed by a shock wave caused by impact on an apartment building next to hers. Three other people lost their lives in that attack.
After the Holocaust, Shmilovitz rebuilt her life in Israel. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League wrote, “I’m devastated to learn that 95-year-old Holocaust survivor, Yvette Shmilowitz, of blessed memory, was killed by an Iranian missile in Petach Tikvah. She survived the horrors of the Shoah (Holocaust) and 80 years later was killed by Iranian terror in her own home – in the Jewish State. This is who the Iranian regime targets. Innocent civilians in residential buildings. Children. The elderly. Holocaust survivors. May Yvette’s memory forever be a blessing.”
She is survived by three granddaughters and four great-grandchildren.
View this post on Instagram
Belina was killed in the June 15th attack on her apartment building in the central Israel city Bat Yam. She was bedridden with dementia and lived in an apartment without a private safe room. She was unable to reach the public shelter in time. Her 100-year-old husband, Chaim and son remained by her side during the attack. They refused to abandon her. Her husband and son were both seriously wounded by shrapnel, yet they miraculously survived.
Belina had been a seamstress. She is remembered as endlessly kind and had a selfless devotion to her family. Her daughter Aviva said, “She was a remarkable woman who gave everything to others.” Her granddaughter Shani explained, “We knew her time was nearing because of her illness, but none of us imagined it would end this way.”
An Iranian missile strike on the mixed Christian-Muslim town of Tamra, located near Nazareth, struck two adjacent homes. It was not the first rocket attack on the town. Tamra had been hit before by smaller rockets fired by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. Known to her family as Noura, Manar Abu Al Heija Khatib, 45, and her two daughters Shada, 13, as well as Manar’s sister-in-law, Manar Diab Katib, 41, were killed in the strike. They had run to the protected room on the top floor of their three-floor home, but it did not withstand the Iranian missile.
Manar’s husband, Raja Khatib, a lawyer, had just reached his home and parked his car underneath their house. As he explained in a television interview, “I intended to go up. I heard a big explosion. No electricity, darkness, dust, complete silence. And suddenly my sixteen-year-old daughter Razan came out. She survived… She was in the protective room. She came out covered with dirt. I started screaming. Shada, Manar, my wife, Hala. Give me a sign you’re alive. Say ‘yes’. Silence. Sometimes, honestly, I’m thinking…why didn’t God take me? Just six seconds…four steps up. Boom! Let God take me and that’s it.”
At the end of the interview, trying once more to hold back his tears, he stated, “I need to be strong for my daughter Razan. I am the only family she has.”
The sisters-in-law were both teachers. Shada had been studying law at the University of Haifa. Hala was in 8th grade.
Three days after Israel launched “Operation Rising Lion” an Iranian missile strike in Bat Yam took the lives a Ukrainian family. Seven-year-old Nastya Burik had come to Israel in December 2022 to undergo cancer treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She was accompanied by her mother, Maria Pashkurova, 30, and her grandmother, Lena, 60, as well as two young cousins, Konstantin Totvich, 9, and Ilya Pashkurov, 13 who were studying in a local school. Artem, Nastya’s father, was unable to travel due to wartime restrictions in Ukraine that prevent men younger than 60 from leaving the country due to the need for manpower in the Ukrainian army. The grandfather, Lena’s husband also had remained behind in the Ukraine.
On June 25th, right before the ceasefire began, Iran shot six missiles aimed at Israel. Four Israelis were killed from a direct hit upon an apartment building in Beersheva. Michal Zacks, 50, her soldier son Eitan, 18, and his girlfriend Noa Boguslavsky, 18, were killed. Naomi Shaanan was killed in an adjacent apartment. Eitan was a trainee in the elite multi-domain unit. He was home for a paramedic course that had been held remotely because of the security situation. Noa was a 12th grader from the city of Arad.
Noa and Michal and Eitan Zacks went into their safe room upon hearing an initial siren. They left after receiving the all-clear message. According to Eitan’s sister, Eliana, the three did not have time to return to the safe room following a second siren that came immediately preceding the impact. The father of the family was home as well, and was trapped in rubble, but he managed to extricate himself and survived.
The fourth victim in the Beersheva missile attack was Naomi Shaanan, who was well known in the city for taking part in daily protests for the release of the hostages being held in Gaza. Just hours before she was killed, she stood on the side of the road with one of her signs.
The verse in the Torah states, “A land which the Lord your God cares for, always the eyes of the Lord your God are upon it, from the beginning of the year and until the end of the year” (Deuteronomy 11:12). We can clearly see the many miracles taking place in Israel today, but every life that has been extinguished is an enormous tragedy.
Such a very important, well done and touching piece; every individual has a face and is to be mourned.
May they rest in peace. May we in Israel-- and throughout the world-- be blessed soon, with real peace.
Each death is horrific. Thank you for showing us that each "loss" was a real person. Heartbreaking, each one. HaShem yikom damam.