Terror Victim One of 200 Olim on Way to Israel 

September 6, 2005 / 2 Elul 5765

Wednesday's sixth Nefesh B'Nefesh flight this 
summer includes a victim of Arab terror and a New York 
couple celebrating a post-wedding festival meal on the plane.

More than 200 new immigrants are scheduled to land at 
Ben Gurion Airport Wednesday afternoon. One more flight 
of new immigrants (olim) is planned in December, bringing 
this year's number of North American olim to 3200.

Chicago-born Tuvia Grossman, 25, said his moving to Israel 
is a way of showing how a small country can stand up 
against terror. He was one of the first terror victims in the 
Oslo War which broke out in September, 2000 the day 
before Grossman was brutally attacked. He was riding in a 
cab with two friends to pray at the Western Wall Friday 
afternoon before the beginning of the Jewish New Year 
(Rosh HaShanah). 

A mob of Arabs stopped the vehicle with a barrage of rock 
throwing near the Lions Gate which leads to the Temple 
Mount. His friends jumped out of the car and escaped, 
but Grossman was dragged out by the mob and severely 
beaten and stabbed. "I understood they had one objective--
to murder me in cold blood because I am a Jew in the 
Holy Land," Grossman said. As the terrorists tried to 
kill him, he said "Kriyat Shema," the prayer Jews recite 
when faced with death, and the recital apparently stunned 
the mob momentarily and allowed him to flee, with a knife 
stuck in his leg.

International attention on the attack was intensified after 
the New York Times and other newspapers published an 
Associated Press picture of the wounded and bleeding 
terror victim. Standing behind him in the picture was an 
angry Israeli policeman with a club in his hand. The caption 
of the picture which read, "An Israeli policeman and a 
Palestinian on the Temple Mount," clearly implied that the 
Jewish victim was a Palestinian beaten by Israelis.

Arutz Sheva English radio interviewed Tuvia who said, 
"That policeman was yelling at the Arabs to back off, and 
was protecting me from them - so to change it around and 
to say that he was beating me, that's just total distortion, 
and the world must be notified about how this is not true - 
the Jews are the ones suffering at the hands of the Arabs."

Arutz Sheva radio proceeded to interview both the New York 
Times and the Associated Press. Hear all three radio 
interviews as they were presented on one of the classic 
shows of the station's history.
http://www.israelnn.com/metafiles/asx/eng-perm/ap-tuvia-grossman.asx

Grossman, a law school graduate, plans to live in Tel Aviv 
and work as a clerk for the Supreme Court while preparing to 
pass examinations to practice as a lawyer in Israel. 

Joy Langer and her new husband Jeremy Jutkowitz are 
planning to celebrate on the plane a festive meal as part of 
the seven-day "Sheva Berachot" (literally: Seven Blessings) 
celebrations which follow a Jewish wedding. The New Yorkers 
were married last Monday and will live in Jerusalem. 
Jutkowitz already is an oleh and now brings with him his 
new wife from the Diaspora. 

Foreign Ministry and Jerusalem municipality officials and 
Rehovot Chief Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook plan to 
welcome the newcomers at the airport.