Terror victim killed on way to SA family wedding

Elan Ganeles, 26, was en route to a South African family wedding when he was murdered in a terrorist attack near the Dead Sea on Monday, 27 February.

He was driving to the wedding of Ariel Lewis, whose family originates from Cape Town, when terrorists fired at his car. He was best friends with Akiva Rockland, brother of the bride, Ma’ayan Rockland.

Lewis’ family left South Africa decades ago for Canada, where he and his siblings were born, and then made aliya. So there were many South African friends and family at his wedding. But the joyous simcha became filled with sorrow when the unfathomable news broke of Ganeles’ death.

Ganeles had been close to the Rocklands since they were toddlers growing up in West Hartford, Connecticut. Ganeles had come to Israel especially to see his best friend’s sister get married, because that was the type of person he was.

When news of his death reached the celebration at Kibbutz Ma’ale Hahamisha near Jerusalem, the hora dancing after the chuppah had just begun.

“Because women and men were separated, Ma’ayan didn’t know anything had happened,” says Yedidya Darshan, who spent a year with Lewis in Cape Town on shlichut, where Lewis forged many close connections to the South African Jewish community.

“But her brothers were sobbing, and so Ariel was told, and he also began to cry,” he says. “I was talking to a South African guest, Leonard Sank, and I was holding up my phone so that Holocaust survivor Ella Blumenthal could watch the simcha from Cape Town. We saw that something had happened, and we were told that a guest had been murdered. The wedding went on, and I don’t think Ma’ayan was told until afterwards. But for those who knew the tragedy, you could definitely feel it in the atmosphere.”

Lewis, who has family in Cape Town, and whose grandfather was the well-known Jewish educator Simon Goldberg, is devastated. His grandmother, Hazel Goldberg, also flew to Israel from Cape Town to celebrate. But now their memories will always be tinged with sorrow.

Back in Connecticut, others with close links to the Ganeles family and the South African Jewish community were also grieving, including Erica Bloch. In 2018, Bloch’s mother, Rosalie, and her life partner, Aubrey Jackson, were brutally killed in a robbery in their Cape Town home. Erica, who had emigrated to West Hartford, Connecticut, was supported after the tragedy by her doctor, Andrew Ganeles.

Now, Bloch will be there for him, his wife Carolyn, and their two sons as they do their best to deal with the senseless murder of their son and brother, Elan, an American-Israeli citizen who recently graduated from Columbia University with a degree in sustainable development and neuroscience. A gunman shot him through the front window of his car on a road near Jericho.

In a moment of foreboding, Elan’s last tweet said, “I think you’re always going to have tension in the Middle East when there’s people who want to kill the Jews and Jews who don’t want to be killed, and neither side is willing to compromise.”

Bloch emigrated from Cape Town in 1991, and moved to West Hartford in 1993. In 1995, she had a baby girl, whose paediatrician worked in the same practice as Elan’s mother, Carolyn. “We would see her often. When she left that practice, we followed her because she was an expert in an illness that our daughter suffered from. She remains an excellent paediatrician, still practicing today,” says Bloch.

Their children are of similar ages, and the two families live around the corner from each other. She also knows Rockland, who is the daughter of her husband’s doctor.

Elan is the 14th Israeli to be murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the space of a month, and the third young man to be murdered by terrorists in the space of two days. This is after brothers Hillel (21) and Yagel (19) Yaniv were killed when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at their car from close range. They are the second set of Jewish brothers to be murdered by terrorists in February 2023.

“I cannot imagine having to bury your child,” says Bloch. “But what I’ve learnt is that there are things you can’t control. Facing the aftermath of tragedy is devastating. We need to remember that promising young people are being lost on both sides of this conflict. When is it going to stop?” She says Elan’s story echoes that of Eli Kay, the beloved son of South African Jewry who was killed at the age of 25 by a terrorist in Jerusalem in November 2021.

Like Kay, Ganeles was deeply involved in his shul, community, and volunteer work. Both played musical instruments – Ganeles the saxophone, Kay the guitar. Both served in the Israeli Defense Forces as lone soldiers, and both lived on a kibbutz. Both had a deep love of Israel, Judaism, and the Jewish people, rooted in their upbringing, Jewish education, and families. And both had a wonderful way with people from all walks of life, leading to an outpouring of grief from individuals, organisations, and politicians at their tragic deaths.

Ganeles was buried in Ra’anana, and the funeral was streamed to a heartbroken community and mourners around the world. The family will return to West Hartford to sit shiva.

“We are snowed under, but from the messages going around, I can sense the huge amount of shock and grief,” says Bloch. “In spite of fears of COVID-19 and a six-inch snowstorm, people are going to be lining up out the door to comfort them. I’ll be one of them. Dr Ganeles has been there for me,” she says, her voice filled with emotion. “Now I’ll be there for him and his family.”

She describes the Ganeles as “lovely, down-to-earth people, which is why I chose Andrew as my doctor. In his rooms, he has photos of his family, including trips to Israel. The family are so beloved in this tiny, close-knit Jewish community.”

South African expat Lesley (Wolk) Meisler’s children also visited Carolyn as their paediatrician, and their children grew up together. They live a few streets away from one another. “My youngest child would often go to their house on a Shabbos afternoon. We shared birthday parties and many happy times together,” says a devastated Meisler.

She heard the news soon after landing in Johannesburg, where she is visiting her daughter, Jordana Sevitz, who is married to a Capetonian and lives in Johannesburg. “We’re heartbroken,” says Meisler. “Their three boys are the most beautiful children. I remember when each of them was born. Our kids all went to the same schools. Seeing his photo in the media makes me feel like I saw him yesterday. It’s so hard to imagine that a child I watched grow up alongside mine has been taken like this.”

Sevitz says she was a few years older than Elan, but “I knew him my whole life. He was quiet and confident, always feeling comfortable to talk to anyone and making them feel at ease. He was funny and clever and always had a joke. He loved making people laugh.” She has also experienced tragedy – her sister-in-law, Hayley Sevitz Varenberg, was killed in a bus accident in Israel in 2019.

Meisler says Elan was “a role model to other kids. He came from a very involved family which gives so much to the community. Andrew and Carolyn are committed to their Judaism and their professions, and are respectful and modest – and that’s how they raised their boys.”

Both mother and daughter “could hardly talk” when they heard the news. “We were shaking,” says Meisler. “I’m encouraging my kids to talk to each other and support each other.”

She says that when she returns to West Hartford, she will immediately visit the family and be there to support it on the long road ahead. “His parents’ and brothers’ generation are extremely close-knit, and will support the family.”

Nancy Krisch, who lives in Cape Town, lived in West Hartford for a number of years. At the time, she knew the Ganeles as acquaintances as well as Rockland when she was a young girl.

“West Hartford is a very close Jewish community with several synagogues representing Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform streams of Judaism, and has strong ties to Israel,” she says. “The community is no doubt reeling from Elan’s death. It’s a warm, caring, and supportive community in its entirety, and I’m sure all will come together to support the Ganeles family.”

Sevitz believes a support group should be set up to help families from the diaspora whose children, like Ganeles and Kay, have had their lives taken senselessly in terror attacks just because they were Jews.