ANT KATZ

Dalya Lemkus z’l made aliyah with her family, survived a stabbing attack in 2006 – only to succumb to one this week in Gush Etzion in the West Bank.Two others were injured in a the attack.

The Monday evening attack occurred at the Alon Shvut junction in the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements, where the three Israelis had been waiting for rides. Dalya lived in the settlement of Tekoa.

RIGHT: Dalya died at this very same spot where the 3 young teens were kidnapped in June & later killed

Israeli security and rescue personnel at the site where a young Jewish woman was killed and two people were injured in a stabbing attack at a bus stop at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut yesterday

The MDA family – Israel’s emergency health services – mourns the death of Dalya deeply as her father, Nahum Lemkus, is an active MDA volunteer of the Jerusalem Region,  and an EMT – ambulance driver at the Tekoa community. Lemkus was in her mid-20s.

The assailant, who reportedly pulled up in his car and stabbed the victims, was shot by a guard at the entrance to the Alon Shvut settlement. He was being treated in a Jerusalem hospital.

He has been identified as Maher Hamdi Hashalamun, 30, of Hebron. He is reportedly affiliated with the terror organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The attack took place at the exact same junction from where three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in June – sparking off the Gaza war. The teens were found dead nearly three weeks later near Hebron.

Several hours before Dalya was stabbed a Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli soldier outside a Tel Aviv train station. The soldier later died in a Tel Aviv hospital. The assailant was apprehended.

Telfed was there

Telfed CEO Dorron Kline was at the very sad funeral of young Dalya, whom Dorron describes as “the beautiful daughter of South African olim Norman (Nachum) and Brenda Lemkus”.

Telfed extends heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the Lemkus family.

The family is sitting shiva at their home in Tekoa, 461 Adirim Street. Shacharit at 7.00; Mincha at 16.00 

Below is an excerpt from an article written by Sherri Mandel and printed in the Blogs section of “The Times of Israel” on Tuesday November 11. 

Sherri writes about what the press fails to mention about Dalya and her very special family:

“…They don’t tell you how she loved to bake with her mother, the two of them bringing rich, luscious cakes to parties and the way she spoke English with an accent – but not a Hebrew accent – a South African accent, because her parents made aliyah from there years ago.

“They don’t tell you how she went to synagogue every Sabbath and smiled at the people in her row before she prayed. And they don’t tell you how she had to hitchhike to get to her job working with children in Kiryat Gat, or that she was the main volunteer at Yad Sarah in Tekoa which lends medical equipment like wheelchairs to those who are sick or injured.

“They don’t tell you how she liked to help brides look beautiful by doing their makeup for them before their weddings.

“They don’t care that Dalya’s father Nachum drives the ambulance in Tekoa. Day and night he is called on to make the drive to Jerusalem, and that Dalya’s mother cares tenderly for the elderly.

“You will never learn from the articles that, when a neighbour had to go to the hospital with a sick child, Dalya stayed with the other young children all night and insisted that they not pay her. The articles would never tell you that she was the one who cooked the food for her brother Haggai’s barmitzvah a month ago, fried fish, salad and pancakes.

“No, they don’t want you to know what a kind, giving, loving young woman she was on the cusp of her adult life, looking towards marriage and creating her own family.”

May her memory be blessed.