SA-born hero’s murder resonates 52 years later

Fifty-two years ago this week, student and Israeli army paratrooper Edward “Eddie” Joffe, who had recently made aliyah with his family from South Africa, was senselessly murdered by terrorists when 5kg of explosives hidden in a biscuit tin at a Jerusalem supermarket exploded. It killed him instantly, together with his friend, Leon Kanner, who had recently made aliyah from Uruguay.

More than half a century later, the tragedy still resonates through the generations. “Our lives were forever changed,” his brother, Harold Joffe, told the SA Jewish Report this week from his home in Ra’anana.

“My mother went white overnight, and got diabetes from the shock. My father was shattered and died at the age of 64. At the far-too-young age of 21, Edward was laid to rest in Har Hamenuchot Yerushala’im.

“He was strong, handsome, smart, a decent and fantastic young man. Full of hope, ambition, and plans. Edward, where would you have been today? Who would you have married? How many other cousins would our children have had?” Joffe asks.

These “what ifs” show the heart breaking ramifications of terrorism, and the thousand questions it generates about whether things could have turned out differently. While it may feel like something that happened long ago and in a different time and place, the story will forever be linked to South Africa, where Joffe grew up.

“Edward completed his schooling at SACS in Cape Town in 1964. He did his military service in South Africa, and at the beginning of 1966, my parents, sister, and Edward came on aliyah. He joined the garin at Kibbutz Tzora, and then went to Gedud 50 of Nahal,” says his brother.

“Edward was known for his outstanding physical abilities coupled with gentleness and a smile. A friend related to us ‘there was no hike in which he did not lend a helping hand to the weaker ones; there was no task that he did not accept without a smile’.

“Eddie didn’t expect any prizes, but he was unable to hide his pride at being a fighter in the paratroopers,” his brother says. To a friend in South Africa, he wrote, “I must admit that this is the greatest pleasure of my life. I don’t know if the fame of the Israeli paratroopers has reached you, but I have now joined their ranks. I now wear the red beret known for its glory, and on my breast are found the famous wings.”

“At the outbreak of the Six-Day War, Eddie found himself on the flank of Northern Sinai. He was injured in the neck by shrapnel which missed his jugular vein by a small fraction of an inch,” Joffe says.

A friend wrote, “I knew him as a soldier and a leader who never stopped smiling and infecting those around him with his joy of life. I saw him wounded, and I picture him thus: Eddie, the tall and powerful paratrooper, wounded with blood flowing from him, but his mouth open with a wide smile.”

The late Joffe wrote to a friend from the hospital, “It was an honour to have fought at the front and while blood flowed from me [I was conscious all the time], I thought that even if I were to die, it would have been worthwhile.”

He was injured again during his service, during the Karameh offensive in March 1968. Towards the end of October 1968, he was accepted at Hebrew University. He moved to Jerusalem to start his studies in the faculty of agriculture, and befriended Kanner. They attended the same lectures, and eventually boarded together in the same small apartment.

“On Friday, 21 February 1969, they went to the Supersol in Rehov Agron Jerusalem to make some purchases for Shabbat and an upcoming excursion. As they approached the meat counter, an explosive device – a biscuit tin filled with 5kg of dynamite – which had been placed in the store by two cowardly female Arab terrorists, was detonated, and Eddie and Leon were both killed instantly,” says his brother. A huge funeral in Jerusalem followed, attended by Yigal Allon and many other Israeli dignitaries.

“We were and are very private about this life-changing episode,” says Joffe. “However, in May 2014, my niece saw an article regarding the trial in the United States of Rasmea Odeh, Edward’s murderer, who had been found guilty of immigration fraud after serving 10 years in an Israeli jail and then being freed during one of the many prisoner swaps of the 1970s. All we wanted was closure. Unfortunately, the matter continued with extensive and mainly anti-Israel and pro-Odeh publicity, until she was finally deported to Jordan at the end of 2017. I’m grateful that my mother never lived to experience this vile tirade.

“Stripping Edward and Leon of their lives didn’t chase us away, and it did nothing to further peace. Edward will always live on in our hearts, and we will forever keep his memory alive,” he says.

Like Joffe, Kanner’s family also made aliyah, and he joined them after studying abroad. In November 1968, he started agriculture studies at the Hebrew University, where he met Joffe. He was 20 when he was senselessly killed. After the bombing, the family developed photographs from his camera that was found at the scene. One photo shows a smiling Kanner with the Jerusalem hills behind him and the world at his feet.

A Joffe family friend, Michael Jankelowitz, launched a campaign for the municipality and the supermarket to erect a memorial plaque, but today there is still nothing to commemorate the tragedy that happened there. “There is a park across the street. It would be appropriate to place a memorial there,” says Joffe. “It should have been done.”

Most of the Joffe family live in Israel. “My parents are buried next to Edward. My mother was extremely Zionist, and the terror attack never broke her Zionism, but it broke her spirit,” says Joffe.

Two weeks before she died, on 23 September 2009, their mother, Roslyn Joffe, recorded a video saying goodbye to her family, and spoke of the impact of her son’s death on her. “I’ve been blessed with wonderful children, grandchildren, and fantastic great grandchildren. Not everyone has that blessing in life. What’s overshadowed all my pleasure has been the loss of Edward. I could never get over that. It’s overshadowed all my joy.”