VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS: Rabbi Dee’s words ring in our ears
This week's editorial reflects on the unspeakable horror to befall the Dee family in Israel and what we can learn from an extraordinary father's response.
“One bullet lodged in her brain stem, the other at the top of her spine. There was an operation, there was reason for hope. Alas, our family of seven is now a family of four.”
Those were the calm yet heavy words of Rabbi Leo Dee from Radlett, speaking hours after his wife, Leah, succumbed to her injuries from a terrorist attack.
Less than 48 hours earlier, he stood in the same place preparing to bury two of his young daughters, Maia and Rina, who were killed in the same attack.
Faced with 22 bullets, some fired at close range, the two girls and their mother stood little chance. At the time of writing, the killer(s) have not been caught.
Extraordinarily, Rabbi Dee, who made aliyah from Radlett with his family nine years ago, saw the bigger picture in his response to the unspeakable, noting that he was speaking on the first day that Easter, Pesach, and Ramadan had coincided for 30 years. “Pesach and Easter are about redemption, about making the world a better place,” he said. “Fasting on Ramadan, I have learnt, generates empathy for those in need and is also about making the world a better place.
“Making the world a better place is a good thing. All world religions believe that we have the power to differentiate between good and evil, so that we can choose to do good and, if we choose to do good, we can make the world a better place.”
“I am saddened that recently, maybe over the last 20 years, this innate ability to differentiate between good and evil, has gradually been lost from humanity.” It is the mark of a good rabbi to find the right words, even though the Jewish world was united in wishing he didn’t have to. At least that love was felt by the Dee family, who described it as “a big hug”.
Leah’s organs went to five people – five life-saving gifts from someone whose life was ended early by unimaginable bitterness and hatred and bullets. The donation did good in this world. It meant that good came from bad. Many readers will be reminded of Yoni Jesner, a 19-year-old from Glasgow on a gap year in Israel when he was killed in a 2002 suicide bombing on a bus in Tel Aviv. His organs saved the lives of two Jewish men and a Palestinian girl.
For Rabbi Dee, formerly senior rabbi at Radlett United Synagogue and an assistant rabbi in Hendon, his world is shattered. Likewise for his surviving daughters and son, who have lost two sisters and a mother. Every prayer is for them now. No one who has read the countless messages of love and support on social media in recent days can fail to have been profoundly moved by the response from Jews and non-Jews the world over.
For the wider world, this grotesque violence has been visceral, visual, audible, and personal, but it is not isolated. Tensions continue to mount, particularly on Israel’s northern border and in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Yeserday Jerusalem police said they had foiled two stabbing attacks in recent days. And an Israel’s police chief has urged gun owners to carry them.
Amid all the hurt, agony, loss, and sorrow, Rabbi Dee’s words – about knowing and doing good – should ring in everyone’s ears. Evil can neither prosper nor endure. We owe it to the Dee family to help make it so.
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