Rabbi Efrem Goldberg from Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida and Rabbi Shay Schachter from Young Israel of Woodmere in New York speak to Israel National News about traveling to Israel to visit Rabbi Leo Dee in Efrat as he mourns the death of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina following the April 7 terrorist attack in the Jordan valley.
“The whole Jewish world was rocked by this horrific tragedy, by the news and everyone was tuned in to the first funeral,” Rabbi Goldberg says. “At the first funeral I was shocked when Rabbi Dee referenced listening to my classes. He invoked my name and I’d never met him, I don’t recall ever interacting with him, and I was touched so deeply I got incredibly emotional to think that this Jewish tragedy which every Jew around the world whose heart pulsates and beats together feels connected with and here he’s mentioning me even though we physically were never together, our souls have been studying Torah for so long.”
“Immediately I was drawn, I have to come. I have to come visit him, I have to sit with him, I feel so connected, not only to hopefully offer him some comfort but to draw strength myself,” he adds.
Rabbi Schachter also felt he had to be there to support Rabbi Dee in person.
“I had a number of people from the community in Efrat who had reached out to me, they were texting me, they were sending emails saying that Rabbi Dee kept quoting things and saying how he had been studying with me for a decade. His [students] came over to me and said that every day when they learn before they begin he always quotes something from a recent year… Rabbi Goldberg and I and we just felt that we had no other place to be other than here,” he explains.
Rabbi Goldberg describes the attack as a “collective Jewish tragedy,” adding that they stood together with the Dee family as the sirens sounded on Tuesday during Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“I thought that not only is everyone right now connected to the six million martyrs of the Holocaust but now these three who joined them, Lucy, Maia and Rina, as well and the siren, reflects not only the Holocaust but the martyrs of all Jewish history,” he says. “The difference between the Holocaust and the context and background in which it happened versus now the State of Israel and in the backdrop of his home in Efrat in the Judean Hills is so different – equally tragic in the loss but profoundly different in the background and the circumstance.”
Rabbi Schachter explains that the two rabbis were asked by Rabbi Dee to stay at the shiva for a very long time. He challenged both of them about the importance of aliyah and what they were doing to help increase aliyah of American Jews.
Rabbi Goldberg admits it”s a topic they themselves struggle with at times, challenging themselves to move up the timeline of when they will move to Israel and bring congregants with them.
Both rabbis said that Rabbi Dee”s message to them was to be an advocate in their communities for promoting aliyah and celebrating olim for moving from the diaspora to the State of Israel.
“We ourselves struggle with where we belong,” Rabbi Goldberg says. “Both of us see ourselves here. The question is not if but when. But he challenged us to move up the timeline a little bit sooner and try to bring people with us.”
Rabbi Schachter describes their conversation with Rabbi Dee as “a very rich robust conversation.”

“He reminded both of us which was shocking that he had emailed us in the past, neither of us remembered, we were embarrassed to say that we didn’t remember,” he says. “But he was taking back from our responses to his emails and bringing that into the conversation yesterday.”
The terror attack that claimed the lives of the Dee family was also a tragedy of the community and of a nation, both rabbis said. Rabbi Goldberg describes how they were with the community as they mourned this week as part of a very moving event that was attended by 500 people.
“When we decided to come we really wanted to just come under the radar as private citizens people who felt connected to him through his learning and the references that he made [to our teachings] and simply to show up at the shiva and to sit there which is really the protocol,” he says. “But our dear friend from Efrat said let”s come gather. We just need to be together and we said we”re coming to be private, we don”t want to present ourselves upon people but if it”s meaningful to the family [then we will agree to it.] Five hundred people came and we sat for an hour and a half and we sang together and we shared thoughts.”
Rabbi Schachter adds: “Souls were open wide, their hearts were open. It was really special and a very deep conversation.”