Tamar Fogel
Vav Adar
It started as a regular Friday night for 12 year old Tamar. After the seudah, the Fogels hosted an Oneg Shabbos for Tamar and her friends, with a dvar Torah from Ruth Fogel, Tamar’s mother. At 10, the girls left the Fogels to walk each other home. At about 9 p.m., the terrorists climbed the security fence around Itamar. They waited an hour, and broke into the Fogel home at 10:30 p.m. They first saw 11 year old Yoav, reading in bed. They took him to a different room, told him not to be afraid, slashed his throat and stabbed him in the chest. The terrorists then strangled and stabbed 4 year old Elad. They stabbed Udi, 36, sleeping in bed; and slashed baby Hadas’s throat when she started crying. Hadas was three months old. They met Ruth, 35, coming out of the bathroom, and stabbed and shot her. The terrorists left, locking the door behind them, and slipped out of the yishuv.
Tamar returned home at 12, and was surprised to find the door locked. Her friend woke up her father, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen. Though unconcerned, he grabbed a gun and went to Tamar’s house. Banging on the window, they woke up 8 year old Roi, who opened the door for Tamar. Satisfied, Rabbi Cohen returned home. Tamar went inside and discovered the murders. She ran outside, shrieking. Rabbi Cohen raced back to the Fogel home, and together with Tamar found her two parents, and three younger siblings, lying in pools of blood. The house was in shambles; blood was everywhere.
When Rabbi Cohen walked in, he saw 2 year old Yishai, “lying next to his bleeding parents, shaking them with his hands and trying to wake them up, while crying.”
Tamar’s grandparents were driven to Itamar to pick up their surviving grandchildren. Zaka volunteers watched over the bodies the entire Shabbos. On Motza’ei Shabbos, they converged on Itamar to collect the bodies and clean up the house.
About 20,000 people attended the levaya, held on Sunday. Tamar stayed in a car nearby and did not come out.
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau spoke. “There are simply no words to describe the depth of pain, of loss. The feeling that there are simply no answers is far stronger than feelings of anger. How does someone look into a baby crib and slash the throat of a three-month-old?”
He said to the surviving Fogel children, “Your mother and father need you. You are the ones who will say Kaddish for them.”
Ruth’s father, Rabbi Ben Yishai, said: “Our children are prepared to be sacrificed as an offering at the altar we have to continue to build to bring redemption. Udi and Ruthie wanted this redemption.”
Udi’s brother Motti spoke out against using the murders for politics. “All the slogans about Torah and settlement, the Land of Israel and the people of Israel are attempts to forget the simple and pain-torn fact: you are dead. You are dead, and no slogan will bring you back. You are not a symbol or a national event. Your life was a purpose in and of itself, and it should be forbidden for your terrible death to turn your life into some sort of tool.”
Tamar promised her relatives: “I will be strong and succeed in overcoming this. I understand the task that stands before me, and I will be a mother to my siblings.”
During the shiva, Tamar requested to speak to Sivan Rahav Meir, a chareidi journalist and mother.
"What sort of people were your parents?"
"The most important thing to them was the unity of the Jewish nation, that we should live in harmony. They believed that we should be united and that we shouldn't have quarrels and strife between ourselves."
"At the expulsion from Gush Katif, we didn't resist. My parents said: "We're leaving. We will not fight against our brothers. Before the expulsion, Ima wanted to make a big sign, saying "Shake off the dust. Arise! Put on your splendid clothes, my nation! (Hitna'ari mei'afar! Kumi! Livshi bigdei tifarteich Ami!)"
"As if to say to the Jewish nation: "This will not break us. We will continue. We will rise up, flourish, and we will continue to grow. We will continue to build, to expand our land."
"This incident, and everything that happens to the Jewish nation won't break us."