South Tel Aviv is in mourning after learning of the death of Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger, who founded the Oz and Emunah Yeshiva in an attempt to bring Jewish life back to a neighborhood that tens of thousands of migrants from Sudan and Eritrea call home, in Sunday's terrorist shooting near Ariel.
"We still refuse to believe it. It was the worst possible news. The rabbi was the engine that drove the yeshiva – its DNA. He was the yeshiva and our father. He took care of us," said Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who was Ettinger's right-hand man in running the yeshiva.
Every morning, Ettinger would call Wasserlauf and remind him to arrange lunch for the students. Sunday was no different.
"He called me 14 minutes before the attack, and I didn't answer because I was studying. After that, I picked up the phone and saw that he'd called," Wasserlauf said.
Shortly thereafter, Wasserlauf received a call from one of the yeshiva graduates who had heard about the shooting and asked if the rumors that Ettinger had been one of the victims were true.
"I didn't know anything about the attack. I saw that the rabbi was late and I didn't understand why, because he always arrived [on time], like a Swiss clock."
Then Wasserlauf's wife called him and told him that Ettinger's wife was trying to get in touch with her husband.
Wasserlauf was quickly brought up to speed.
"I got news from a friend who was there that Rabbi Ettinger had been critically wounded. I gave the news to the students. From that moment on, we never stopped praying and organizing prayer vigils, and letting people know his full name so they could pray for him. So more people would study Torah so he could be healed," Wasserlauf said.
After the news of Ettinger's passing, the yeshiva students shut themselves up in the building, telling each other stories about their teachers and studying in his memory.
"We hugged each other. The rabbi was an outstanding figure for us. We got strength from him. He pushed us forward. He was a man of action and a man of the Torah – he was a Torah warrior," Wasserlauf said.
"I was sitting with his family and we pieced together what had happened. His father said that he could have kept driving, but chose to confront the terrorist. He wanted to save lives, to get the attacker. That was Rabbi Ettinger – he wasn't scared of anything. He was a strong person who devoted all his strength to the Torah. On one hand, he was a gentle spirit, and on the other as strong as an oak in everything having to do with devotion to the Jewish people."
The yeshiva plans to continue on the path Ettinger laid out for it and build itself up.
"His vision was that the yeshiva would grow and produce brilliant students, that it would be an influence and enlighten the entire world. We intend to put all our strength into fulfilling his life's work," Wasserlauf said.
Wasserlauf also said he wanted the world to know how devoted the rabbi was.
"He was detached from worldly pleasures. Every moment he spent teaching the Torah was joyful for him. He was happy when I studied 15 minutes longer than planned. He also had stick-to-itiveness – he decided that he would found a yeshiva, in a particularly difficult place, against all the obstacles."
Neighborhood activist Mai Golan said that "the pure, righteous" Ettinger had chosen to found a yeshiva in the "most primitive, saddest, and depressing place… where there was no holiness or purity."
"He took an abandoned synagogue, brought lovely yeshiva students in. Seeing them coming and going was enough to warm your hearts," Golan said.
Golan said that in recent years, she had hosted hundreds of tours and meetings in south Tel Aviv as part of efforts to raise awareness of the difficulties of the area. She would always end her tours at the yeshiva, as an optimistic note.
"This is another blow, another tragedy for this stricken place called south Tel Aviv. It's like they took our father, not only his children's [father]. They took a man who did what no one else did, who came from Eli to Neve Shaanan every day and built a yeshiva here. I prayed for a miracle. I knew what his condition was and I wanted a miracle to prove to the people [here] that they do happen. The Lord takes the best ones," Golan said.
Golan explained that beyond Ettinger's work with his students, he "strengthened an entire neighborhood, without a fuss and without announcements, when he arrived. … When I ended my tours at the yeshiva, I showed people that there are some who care, who come to the roughest place in the country – that we have something to fight for. The fact that he won't be there breaks our spirit."
Shefi Paz, another neighborhood activist, was shocked when she heard about the Ariel shooting and Ettinger's death.
"I had a lot of personal conversations with him. He was someone I really liked and respected. He was the first rabbi I ever knew who I could sit and talk with about everything. It's a terrible loss. We don't know what will happen. This place must not collapse," Paz said.
"Rabbi Ettinger was tremendously optimistic, even innocent. He believed that would bring Jews back to Neve Shaanan, and now he's left us with that legacy. I don't know what will happen tomorrow – probably everyone involved in the yeshiva will meet and think about how to go on. We can't let his dream fall apart. People here are in mourning. He was one of us – an honorary resident of south Tel Aviv, an honorary member of our struggle. His innocent was what propelled him toward the terrorist attack – he didn't run away, he ran toward it, into the fire."
