Some memories live forever …

 

On what would have been Alisa’s 50th birthday, I, her mother, sisters and brother will pause and spend a few minutes looking back.

Doesn’t it seem like yesterday when your first child was born? To me, it does, and decades later, you recall the excitement—more appropriately called nervousness—that had been building as the “due date” approached. Lamaze birth classes are attended, a “go bag” in anticipation of the onset of serious labor is prepared, you might even practice driving to the hospital, the mother-to-be buys a neutral color layette of onesies, blankets, booties and caps because there were no “gender reveal” parties in those days.

During dinner, your wife tells you what the doctor said during that day’s visit: “You’re not there yet. It will be another week before you go into labor.” Two hours later, she announces: “We have to go to the hospital.” You get the go bag and say to yourself, “I hope the Oreo cookies are still in there,” and follow the route to the hospital that you practiced the day before.

When you arrive, a nurse matter-of-factly takes the soon-to-be-mother’s necessary information, and you’re escorted to a drab labor room. The doctor arrives before you even have a chance to check on the Oreos, does an exam and proclaims “any minute now.” Your wife, with your help, is doing her breathing routine through labor pains. A nurse asks if I want to go to the delivery room (in the 1970s that was considered cutting edge), hands me a pair of scrubs to wear and escorts me to the delivery room, where I stand by the side out of the way. The doctor and mother go to work. You hear the first cries of a newborn and the doctor announces: “It’s a girl!” Then she’s whisked off to the nursery. You head to the nursery, where a nurse holds up your daughter, who we would name Alisa, behind the thick glass of the nursey so you can see her and take a photo.

I see Alisa’s birth in my mind’s eye as clearly as another event that took place less than 21 years later. That was when I held her hand after she succumbed to a wound she suffered in a terror attack in 1995. 

Alisa's high school yearbook photo

On what would have been Alisa’s 50th birthday this week, I, her mother, sisters and brother will pause and spend a few minutes looking back.
We’ll remember how Alisa’s life, though brief, left a profound legacy of resilience, compassion and commitment to faith. We’ll recall that at the age of 4, she told her parents that she was not going to the public school around the corner from their home in West Orange, N.J., but to “a Jewish school where Becky,” a fellow student at her nursery school, “is going.” We enrolled her, and Alisa, like the proverbial duck takes to water, took her education to heart.

Alisa developed a love not only of Judaism but the State of Israel. Taking her first trip with an aunt when she was 11, her last trip at the age of 20 was her sixth.

That final trip, which began in December 1994, would allow her to immerse herself in Jewish studies at Nishmat in Jerusalem. It also allowed her to live in an apartment with four young women like herself and gave her the time to run daily, join a gym, and to, in the words of Nishmat’s dean Rabbanit Chana Henkin, “sneak off to daven at the Kotel.”
Looking back, I believe Alisa’s dedication to her faith was a central part of her character and guided many of her life decisions. This dedication illustrates an important lesson: that one’s faith and culture are not mere background details but are essential parts of an individual’s journey towards personal growth. Whenever Alisa and her siblings would return from a trip to Israel, I noticed that they came back not just as better Jews but as better people. With this thought in mind, the Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund was created to afford others the opportunity to seek their own roots and to understand their personal values deeply through study in Israel.

Today, almost 30 years after her murder, friends remember Alisa as warm and caring, with an openness and compassion that resonated with everyone she encountered. Known for always having a smile on her face, she had a unique way of making others feel seen and valued.

Her final gift came when her organs were donated following her death. Three lives were saved and, importantly, that act reinvigorated organ donation in Israel, which had become moribund.

With four girls in our family now named after her, Alisa lives on. Each of her nieces and nephews attend or attended “a Jewish school,” and they have been developing their own religious awareness. Watching them grow into upright and proud Jews is a blessing. Today, when a grandchild’s religious observance causes me to shake my head in wonderment as to where that came from, the parents tell me “to blame Alisa,” but it’s all good in the end, and I smile from ear to ear.

Alisa’s short life teaches us that a legacy of empathy, kindness and commitment can spread outward long after a life is cut short. Her story underscores that while we cannot always control our circumstances, we can shape our impact through how we respond to hardship. Alisa’s life and legacy encourage us to think of our own values—and that is quite a meaningful and enduring legacy.

So, happy birthday, Alisa! L’chaim.

A Review of A Father's Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror written by Stephen M. Flatow

In new memoir, father seeks justice from terrorists who killed his daughter

jpost.com/Magazine/Fighting-back-576170

By Gil TroyJanuary 1, 2019

In April 1995, a Palestinian terrorist murdered Alisa Flatow, a 20-year-old American.

Beyond further illustrating Palestinians’ obsession with killing Jews and not building Palestine, this crime showed that six months before Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Palestinian terrorists were already sabotaging the Oslo Peace Process.

This tragedy also mobilized Stephen Flatow against the terror infrastructure that murdered his daughter. Flatow’s determination created a new tool against terrorism – lawfare; drained billions from the networks bankrolling terrorism; and pushed back creatively against Iran, the world’s great terror-paymaster.

His battle was one “I’d win, but one which could never compensate me for what I had lost,” Flatow writes in his new book, A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.

That subtle, tear-stained sentence captures the nightmare haunting his life – and both sides of his remarkable memoir. It’s a compelling legal-political thriller, and a searing tribute to a missing daughter.

The first dimension is a real-life Hollywood thriller. A regular guy – a real-estate lawyer from New Jersey – seeking justice, punishes evil, confronts hypocrisy and inspires millions. Flatow wanted to sue the Iranians for financing Alisa’s murderer. He assumed the discovery process would embarrass them, exposing the mullahocracy’s evils. But – surprise! The court quickly awarded his family $250 million.

Then the real drama began.

As Flatow explained to me recently in Jerusalem, the American government “was caught flat-footed by the judgment, too.” Then-president Bill Clinton feared this decision might unleash many Lone American Rangers against foreign governments – making a mess of American foreign policy. Less explicable was Clinton’s softness toward Iran – which Barack Obama mimicked. That’s “what still frustrates me the most,” Flatow says. “I could never quite understand what his goal was.”

Thanks to Flatow’s superhuman persistence – lobbying, cajoling, button-holing, speechifying, op-eding – the Flatows eventually received about one-tenth of the award. Today, the money funds good causes, especially the kind of year-in-Israel programs Alisa was enjoying when she was killed.

Unfortunately, they were double-crossed.

Flatow refused to take “one cent” from the American taxpayer. The Clintonites implied the funds came from $400 million in seized Iranian assets. Only in 2016, when the Obama administration inexplicably paid Iran the $400 million – plus $1.3 billion in interest – did Flatow realize he’d been snookered.

What makes the book most memorable is the emotional journey Flatow shares with the reader as the international intrigue is playing out.

Alisa was a vivacious kid who, like all kids, wasn’t perfect, and wondered why things went wrong when they did. Once, when she broke her foot, Flatow explained to Alisa: “Things happen. We just don’t understand why. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

FLATOW WRITES movingly about his excruciating last-minute flight to Israel, with his daughter on life-support, to authorize ending her life – and sharing her organs with others. It will be a challenge for readers – seeing how he’s shepherded with love along the way – to get through the book without getting misty-eyed.

At the funeral, after calmly recounting the Israeli and American love that enveloped them, Flatow said: “What breaks my heart the most is this. There’s one family mourning the loss of a child. And there’s a family dancing with glee that their son killed himself – and my daughter.”

Later, he recalls being cross-examined by his lawyer, Tom Fay, who asked: “Mr. Flatow, you were the father of Alisa Flatow?”
Flatow responded: “No.”

Fay “looked lost.” Flatow explained: “I’m still her father.”

Fay teared up. The judge swiveled away, trying to hide his emotions. Flatow realized then that he just might win.

Today, Flatow tells Orthodox students: “You must learn how to stand up for yourself as a person and a Jew. History has taught us if we don’t stand up for ourselves no one else will. But we do it in a civil way.” He tells non-religious Jews: “Israel is our home. We can always look toward Israel for our strength and our inspiration.” Then he adds, “Please, understand that people there are under tremendous pressure and they deserve our support.”

Flatow has lived a full life, with a loving wife, four surviving children and 16 grandchildren. He has full days, often waking up at 5 a.m. But, he says, “Eventually, every night, you run out of steam. You never quite recover.” 

This Jewish hero, this American hero, this extraordinary human being, ends his love poem to his daughter, to Judaism, Israel, Zionism and humanity, with the wrenching words: “I can only hope that I will find my right place.”

We hope so, too, while imagining how many lives he – and Alisa by extension – saved by pursuing the terrorists and their enablers, putting them on the defensive for a change.

The writer is the author of the newly-released The Zionist Ideas, an update and expansion of Arthur Hertzberg’s classic anthology,The Zionist Idea, published by the Jewish Publication Society. A distinguished scholar of North American History at McGill University, he is the author of 10 books on American history, including The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s.  

Saying goodbye, then and now, to a victim of terror

20 years is a long time, and the attitude of the Israeli government in one small respect has changed since Alisa was murdered in 1995.  Some thoughts about the murder of Ezra Schwartz from the Times of Israel.

What a difference 20 years can make. It was late Tuesday evening, April 11, 1995. 36 hours earlier I had arrived in Israel to be by the side of my daughter Alisa who had been mortally injured in a bus bombing. Now I was being ushered by Israeli protocol people into the VIP lounge at Ben Gurion Airport to await my El Al flight that would return me with Alisa’s body to the States. I sat on a couch at one end of the room, next to a military chaplain who didn’t speak a word of English. On the opposite side were members of the press who asked a few questions. Frankly, I don’t remember what those questions were, or what I said in reply.

Read the full post here. 

 

Iran is still on the list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism"

One of the key components of a US citizen's lawsuit against a foreign country is a determination by the State Department that the country is a "state sponsor of terrorism."  This has been in place since the adoption in 1996 of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of that year.  Indeed, it gave our family the grounds to purse the Iranian government for being the sponsor of the terror group that murdered Alisa in April 1995.

It should come as no surprise to those who follow these events that the Islamic Republic of Iran is again on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

To read more about the designation, go to this report on the State Department's website -
Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview



Stephen M. Flatow

Israel should not release more Palestinian terrorists

SHOULD ISRAEL RELEASE MORE TERRORISTS?

Read on-line here.

By Stephen M. Flatow

Every time there's a public discussion about whether Israel should release more imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, my heart skips a beat. My daughter Alisa was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 1995. Two of the killers have been in an Israeli prison since 1995, serving life sentences. I always worry that they will be among the ones released.  So yes, it's personal.

But it's also much more than that.

It's not just about my daughter's killers; it's about dozens of other Israeli and American families whose loved ones also were victimized by Palestinian terrorists. It's about the future Israeli victims, if the released terrorists return to their violent ways, as so many of them do.  It's about what's best for Israel's national security. And, of course, it's about what's best for America, too.

Last year, Israel agreed to release more than 100 terrorists, some of them convicted murderers, in stages, as a gesture of "good faith" to the Palestinians. It was a measure of Israel's desperation for peace, and of the Obama administration's not-so-subtle threats to publicly blame Israel if the peace process derails. So to keep that process going, the Israelis took what everyone agrees is a serious security risk.

Now the Palestinian Authority (PA) is demanding that Israel release yet another batch of terrorists--even though the PA is threatening to walk away from the peace negotiations in the weeks to come.

Sadly, the Palestinian leadership never responds to such gestures with any gestures of its own, any steps that would show their desire for peace. Instead, the released killers are welcomed as heroes, with public celebrations, marching bands, and speeches from PA leaders heaping praise on the murderers. When Palestinians embrace terrorists, it tends to convince Israelis that the Palestinians still, well, embrace terrorism.

In a separate "good will" gesture, the Israelis recently gave the PA the bodies of five terrorists, two of whom were involved in suicide bombings that left 16 Israelis dead and more than 80 wounded. Here is how a reporter on PA Television described the two dead bombers at the March 12 funeral in Nablus: "The skies of Nablus adorn themselves with the stars who loved the soil of the homeland, in which they will lie forever having returned to it as Martyrs (Shahids)."

Imagine the uproar if after the funeral of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, a reporter for a mainstream American television station, declared: "The skies of Oklahoma City adorn themselves with this star who loved the soil of the homeland, in which he will lie forever having returned to it as a Martyr."

PA Television then interviewed the brother of suicide bomber Imad Zubeidi, who said "This is not mourning, but a wedding of Martyrdom--we are very proud that our brother gave of himself for Palestine."  And the sister of the other bomber, Maher Hbeishah, said, "He would always pray, 'Allah, make us live happily and die as Martyrs'--praise be to Allah, he achieved it."

This is the culture of glorifying mass murder that the Palestinian Authority has created. If Israel releases 26 more terrorists, as the PA is demanding, that will mean 26 more celebrations, 26 more parades, and 26 more relatives on television, telling millions of Palestinian and other Arab viewers how wonderful it is to carry out suicide bombings.

You don't have to be a prime minister or a seasoned diplomat or a four-star general to understand that setting more killers free just doesn't make any sense.

It won't increase the chances for peace. It will just give the Palestinian another prime-time opportunity to glorify mass murderers.

It won't help our ally, Israel. It will be just another one-sided concession for which Israel will get nothing in return--and will whet the appetite of Israel's enemies to keep demanding more and more.

It will send a message to the Palestinians that they don't need to change their ways. They can keep on encouraging terrorism, they can keep promoting a culture of violence--and the Obama administration will keep on pushing to give them a sovereign state, even though we know that it will be a terrorist state. That won't be good for Israel, for America, or for peace.

Israel's Prisoner Release, my two cents

Much has been written, pro and con, about Israel's release of convicted terrorists from prison.  It's an upsetting event.  The following is from the New York Post-

Will my daughter’s killers go free?

By STEPHEN M. FLATOW

Last Updated: 12:33 AM, July 31, 2013

Posted: 10:15 PM, July 30, 2013

My stomach flipped when I heard the news this week that Israel is releasing more than 100 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, including many who’ve murdered civilians.
My daughter Alisa was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 1995. Some of those terrorists or their co-conspirators were killed by Israeli security forces; some were arrested by the Palestinian Authority, then released soon afterward. Two have been in an Israeli prison since 1995, serving life sentences.
Unlike the United States, Israel doesn’t have the death penalty for terrorists, but I thought these guys would be behind bars for, well, life — because Israel, our family was told, wouldn’t use terrorists as political bargaining chips. That was a “red line” that Israel would supposedly never cross.
I’ve always accepted the fact that Israel would have to make hard decisions when it came time to negotiate a solution to 65 years of Arab hostility and warfare against the Jewish state. I understood this when an Israeli prime minister shook hands with arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn in 1993.
And I didn’t complain to the Israeli government when, after Alisa was murdered by Islamic Jihad, some Israeli officials called her a “casualty of the peace” — when she was, in fact, murdered by Palestinian Arabs freely operating with the knowledge of the Palestinian Authority and some of her killers were roaming free under the noses of Arafat and his deputy — now Palestinian president— Mahmoud Abbas.
But then Israel began to breach the red line on releasing terrorists. Small numbers of Palestinian terrorists — although not those directly involved in murders — were set free as “good-will gestures” to either revive a stagnant peace process or because Israel’s hand was forced because of some political or military blunder.
Perhaps one could understand the logic of releasing prisoners to establish good will with the Palestinian public or to strengthen the Palestinian leadership. But it became clear to me, and (according to poll after poll) the Israeli public, that these efforts were not met with any reciprocity from the other side.
Terrorists are idolized by the Palestinian people; their leaders name parks, stadiums and athletic events after mass murderers.
As a result, I thought that by now Israel would have learned the first lesson of negotiating: Never negotiate with yourself.
I appear to be wrong, because, apparently at the behest of Secretary of State John Kerry, over 100 terrorists are going free, including many directly involved in multiple murders — as a good-will measure to “bolster” Abbas and to give Kerry something to say he accomplished after racking up so many frequent-flyer miles traveling to the Middle East.
What will Israel get in return? From all news accounts, it appears the answer is nothing more than the Palestinians returning to the negotiating table.
So I ask Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Will my daughter’s murderers, now in an Israeli prison, be released for the sake of good will? Can you show me anything concrete that will come from this action that will allow my son and his family, citizens of Israel, to sleep safely in their home in Jerusalem?
Show me something that will allow me to go to my eventual rest knowing that my personal efforts to assist in the ongoing development of the state of Israel weren’t a waste of time. Show me something, anything at all, and I will support you.
Unfortunately, I don’t think you can. Your present course of action will only lead to more tragedy.
Stephen M. Flatow lives in New Jersey; his daughter Alisa was murdered in an April 1995 terror attack at Kfar Darom.

Read more: Will my daughter’s killers go free? - NYPOST.com http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/will_my_daughter_killers_go_free_qC4iBBbZ30MhfK8iLUJZKI#ixzz2abP3lBpj

Comments on terror bombing video

The Mike Kelly column on the terror bombing video has generated two letters to the editor that focus on the comments made by one of Kelly's interviewee's, Aref Assaf, a pro-Palestinian activist.

Aref Assaf of the Paterson-based American-Arab Forum, one of North Jersey's leading Palestinian activists and a frequent critic of Israel's policies, also condemned the video.


"Any person or group that glorifies the killing of innocent people is something I can't condone," said Assaf, who was born in a West Bank refugee camp and still has family there.

But Assaf said the video's release did not surprise him.

"This is part of the price of continued violence between two people fighting over the same land," he said.

Whoa, you read that correctly, he's equating Israel's responses to terror as the same thing as the terror attack. And he fails to define what he means by "same land."

Two letters to the editor of the Bergen Record have taken Assaf to task for those comments.  While available on line, the links are hard to follow, so here are the letters in full:

Persistent ‘straw men’ in Mideast

Regarding Columnist Mike Kelly’s "Video as senseless as terrorist attack" (Page L-1, May 1):

Kelly’s column reminded us that monumental events often have lasting impact and that the horror of acts of violence do not dissipate with the passage of time and the public’s short-term memory.

Yet I was taken aback by the comments of Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Forum. Assaf, described by Kelly as one of North Jersey’s leading Palestinian activists and a frequent critic of Israel’s policies, condemned the video but said, "This is part of the price of continued violence between two people fighting over the same land."

Is Assaf drawing moral equivalency between terrorist bomb attacks and responses by the Israeli military concerned about the safety of its citizens, both Arab and Jewish? By using the term the same land, is he saying that Palestinians are fighting over Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheva? These are two fundamental questions that must be answered by Palestinians when they decide to join Israel at the negotiating table, where Israel has offered to sit with her neighbors for 64 years.

The "settlement excuse" for not negotiating is in truth a "straw man." The maps for a just territorial compromise that would involve land swaps and the evacuation of some Israeli communities in the West Bank were drawn and agreed to by the negotiators at the end of President Clinton’s administration. The problem then, as it remains today, is the inability of Palestinian leaders to say yes to territorial compromise and no to terror. Israel is waiting for the Palestinian Authority to demonstrate its sincere desire for peace.

Neal I. Borovitz
River Edge, May 2
The writer, rabbi of Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge, is chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

and

Regarding Columnist Mike Kelly’s "Video as senseless as terrorist attack" (Page L-1, May1) on the Internet video of the bombing that killed Alisa Flatow:

Aref Assaf of the Paterson-based American Arab Forum asserts, "This is part of the price of continued violence between two people fighting over the same land."

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Arabs have been attacking the people of Israel long before it was a state, including long before the West Bank was taken by the Israeli Defense Forces.

This violence has absolutely nothing to do with land. It is about existence: The Arabs simply do not want Israel to exist. Period. The truth is plain to see.

Herbert Burack
Teaneck, May 2

Well said.

Theatrical production at Guantanamo could have been handled better.

Experience is a good teacher. I believe it applies to all aspects of life.  Whether you are learning your way around Facebook, your car, or any other thing worth learning, we learn best from our mistakes.

So why did the government prosecution allow the defendants to stage a theatrical production?

Prosecution of terrorists and their supporters has a history.  Mistakes have been made, yet they are fortunately far outweighed by the numerous successes.

Already the trial of terrorists that started this week at Guantanamo Bay is seemingly off to a bad start for the US.  Having been a witness, maybe a stakeholder would be a better word, in the trial of Sami Al-Arian about nine years ago, I believe I am qualified to offer my opinion as to the events now unfolding at Guantanamo Bay as the US puts several on trial for their role in the mass murder that we call "9/11."

Alisa Flatow was murdered in April 1995.  In November of that year FBI agents seized the computers and other records of Sami Al-Arian, long a vocal supporter of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.  Victims' parents such as myself surmised that Al-Arian would soon be indicted for a role in Kfar Darom bombing that claimed the life of one American citizen, my daughter.

That was not to be because it wasn't until years later that Al-Arian was arrested in connection with that bombing and others involving American citizens and it wasn't until 2003 that he went to trial.  Found not guilty of the most serious charges, and a mistrial  declared on the others, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to providing material support to PIJ and was sentenced to a term in prison to be followed by his deportation.  (He's still in this country.)

What went wrong in the Al-Arian case?  To my way of thinking, the delay between seizing the evidence, interpreting it and presenting it at trial was almost eight long years.  Add to that a plethora of charges, and the inherent difficulty in proving conspiracy cases, and we wound up with almost nothing.

So now we turn to the proceedings at Guantanamo Bay.  A prosecution more than 11 years after 9/11 is the best we can get.  So we have to deal with it.  But, already, a mistake has been made by allowing the defendants to be in open court and slow down the proceedings with their antics.

What should have been a short, sweet, and to-the-point hearing about pleas to the charges turned into a mockery of murder and it was directly in the face of victims' families who watched by closed circuit TV.

The defendants have been able to work on their theatrics for quite some time, and the government should have been prepared for it.  At the first sign of difficulty, these killers should have been led out of the courtroom and taken to a room where they could watch the proceedings on CCTV.  Any disruption on their end of the hearing would have been invisible, and the court could have proceeded to have an uninterrupted hearing.

Here are some links to the coverage of the hearing:

New York Daily News ; LA Times

I hope the government has learned from its mistakes. 

Well, that's what I have to say.  What do you think?

Stephen M. Flatow

Just another insult - Islamic Jihad posts video of attack

I previously posted a video distributed by Islamic Jihad commemorating the terror attack that killed Alisa Flatow and 7 others in April 1995 near the settlement of Kfar Darom.

Mike Kelly, writing in New Jersey's Bergen Record, comments on the video.

He writes,

The video seems like an amateurish cartoon. But what it depicts is as real as the grave in a Paramus cemetery where Alisa Flatow's body lies.

You can read the full column here.

Yom Hazikaron in New Jersey

Israel is now commemorating Yom Hazikaron, a day of remembrance.  It's a solemn day that begins with sirens throughout the country calling the nation to stand at attention for 2 minutes in remembrance of Israel's war dead and victims of terror.

Our local Jewish federation, UJC of MetroWest, New Jersey, held its annual Yom Hazikaron last night.  It was a program that combined a mixture of song, prayer, poems and reflection, to make a meaningful evening.

As the father of a terror victim, Alisa Flatow, I was asked to say a few words.  I called my remarks, "A Father Reflects."  Here they are:

20 years ago the words Yom Hazikaron would have been unknown to American Jews. Today, due to the experience of American families shared in common with Israelis 6,000 miles away, Yom Hazikaron has a place on our calendar, too.


Over the past 20 years, unprecedented numbers of young and not so young Americans have travelled to Israel to study, to tour, and volunteer in the IDF. Some go for as little as a week, others for 10 month programs at yeshivot and universities, and others for longer periods. Some decide to stay.

They ride the buses; they go the same resorts, restaurants, theaters and museums as Israelis. They learn the language or brush-up on the intricacies of dik-duk. They learn the bus system.

They learn that yehi b’seder is not just a way to brush off a problem but a core belief that no matter how dark they are now things will work out for the better.

Most importantly, they learn daily what it means to be a member of an ancient people made modern in the past 100 years.

Sometimes they pay the ultimate price for being in Israel—they die. But whether the victim is a Michael Levin, a lone soldier from Pennsylvania, or a Joan Devanney, a teacher spending a year on a special program for Jewish educators; or a Marla Bennett or Ben Blutstein, studying at Hebrew University, or an Alisa Flatow, studying the texts that make Jews what we are, their families never blame them for being in Israel as the cause of their loss.

And while we may tempted to blame their loss on being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we know in our hearts that because our daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, nephews and cousins were living a dream, in the land they loved, among the people they loved, they were in the right place.

* * * *

A terror victim’s legacy: ‘This is how we go on’

Alisa Flatow

On the flight back from a recent trip to Israel, my wife Rosalyn reminded me that Purim was six weeks away. Jews, my wife included, seem to mark many things by their proximity to holidays.

So begins my latest article about Alisa's impact on the life of her family.  It's a story common to the families of many terror victims--a refusal to surrender to the forces of evil in this world.

To read more, go to "A terror victim's legacy: 'This is how we go on'" in the New Jersey Jewish News.

From the murderers of Islamic Jihad, a tribute to the April 9, 1995 terror attack that killed Alisa Flatow and 8 others

Even the murderers of Islamic Jihad use the Internet.  A depiction of the April 9, 1995 terror attack near the Jewish community of Kfar Darom that killed Alisa and 8 others has appeared on the Internet.  The story and video appears on Israel National News.

New violence in Israel troubles a father's sore heart in N.J. | NJ.com

My most recent column appeared in the Star-Ledger on Friday, April 15, 2011, New violence in Israel troubles a father's sore heart in N.J.

Originally intended as a political commentary on the Hamas missile attack at an Israeli school bus and the retraction of the Goldstone Report, the column became a personal recollection of my daughter Alisa's murder in April 1995 and the lessons learned since.

Sadly, innocent civilians are again being put in the crosshairs by Hamas and its allies in Gaza. (Thank you, Susie.) And Israel's reaction will be deemed wrong.

Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund Annual Report

Annual Report
January 2010 – Shevat 5770

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to send you this, our Annual Report for the 2009-2010 school year. This was another year of success for the Alisa Flatow Memorial Fund as we awarded 9 Scholarships for a year’s study in Israel. Please see the list of awardees.

The Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund continues to be the leader of scholarship opportunities for post-high school study in Israel. Open to men and women, without regard to whether the applicant is Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist or unsure, we continue to receive more than 250 applications a year for students attending a variety of institutions in Israel. Interest is keen because our young adults understand the promise that a year of study in Israel holds for them and for the Jewish people.

More than $300,000 has been awarded since the Fund was established in 1995 via your tax deductible contributions to the Fund. Your continuing support helps these young adults embark on a life changing year of study and accomplishment.

We wish you health and good things in this new calendar year.

With gratitude,

Rosalyn & Stephen Flatow and family

You may contribute securely on-line here.

Or, you may mail your contribution to:
Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund
Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest
901 Route 10
Whippany, NJ 07981

www.alisafund.org

Study in Israel - Scholarship fund helps hundreds

The Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund has been granting scholarships for post-high school study in Israel since 1996. While the study must be religious in nature, scholarships are available to men and women whether they be Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist or unsure.

More information about the Fund and applications are available through the Fund's website www.alisafund.org.

And now a word from the sponsor:

The Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund does gratefully accept contributions. The demand for scholarship assistance is great and the Fund does need partners.

Contributions by check should be made payable and mailed to:

Alisa Flatow Mem. Scholarship Fund
Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest
901 Route 10
Whippany, NJ 07981

If you care to contribute on line, please go here.

I thank you for your support.

Stephen M. Flatow