Chabad Officials Pay Emotional Visit

By COLlive reporter

Top Chabad officials paid visits this week to emotionally support and comfort the wounded and the families of the fallen in Israel’s military campaign against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Rabbi Yosef Aharonov, Chairman of both Agudas Chassidei Chabad in Israel and the Lubavitch Youth Organization (“Tzach”) there was joined by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement which oversees the Shlichus outreach network.

Together, the two visited soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces that were wounded in Operation Protective Edge and recovering at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

They came bearing warm words and gifts from the Chabad Terror Victims Project (CTVP), which assists Israelis who have fallen victim to war and terrorism.

One of the soldiers told them that his pair of Tefillin was left in an army tank that was targeted in the heart of Gaza, where Israel is targeting Hamas rocket launchers and terror tunnels.

The rabbis immediately took out a new pair of Tefillin and gave it to him as a gift. Although he was severely wounded, he managed to lay Tefillim on his arm and head and pray for his colleagues in the line of duty.

Earlier, Rabbis Aharonov and Kotlarsky traveled to Moshav Kfar Azar near Tel Aviv where they visited the Shiva home of 20-year-old Staff Sgt. Daniel Pomerantz who was killed in a Hamas ambush in the Gaza Strip.

They were joined by Rabbi Menachem Kutner of CTVP and Rabbi Levi Gopin, Director of Chabad in the village and who was a friend of Pomerantz and hosted his Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13.

The soldier’s mother Colonel (Res.) Varda Pomerantz, former head of the IDF’s casualties department, said she has been in contact with Rabbi Aharonov over the years and praised Chabad’s work with soldiers and terror victims.

At the funeral, Varda Pomerantz played an audio recording of her last phone conversation with her son. He said he left a farewell note in case something happened to him.

In that final message written on his cellphone, Daniel Pomerantz wrote: “I’m so happy I was born to this family … Stay happy for me.”

Rabbi Kotlarsky told Mrs. Pomerantz that he was touched by her eulogy for her son that was publicized in Israeli media. “I read it again and again and it brought tears to my eyes,” he said.

The Pomerantz family said it appreciated the condolence message delivered in the name of the Shluchim, adding that the notion that the worldwide Chabad community is mourning with them gives them strength and inspiration.