Fighting Terror with Torah

In the summer of 2013, Emma Bellows and Revital Chavel (now seniors) participated in Camp Koby, a program with the Koby Mandell Foundation that brings American high school students to a summer camp in Israel to serve as counselors for kids who have lost a family member. Emma’s campers, Miriam and Devora, were at camp because their sister had recently died.

Now, two years later, their father Aryeh Kupinsky was one of the victims killed in the terror attack in the synagogue in Har Nof, Israel.

In response, on November 23 Emma and Revital organized a learning event in memory of Aryeh Kupinsky and his daughter at our local shul, Kehilat Chovevei Tzion, where rabbis and teachers gave shiurim about related topics. “The whole community–our friends, friends’ parents and grandparents, teachers, and parents’ friends–were all very supportive, and each shiur had a nearly full circle of chairs,” says Revital.

Before the learning, Revital and Emma spoke about Aryeh Kupinsky, whose biography we got from his brother, our camp director Dovid Kupinsky. Afterward, we provided attendees with a information on how to donate to Camp Koby, so they can contribute to an program that helps kids in Israel like the Kupinsky children.