Eitan Ganeles, cousin of terror victim US citizen Elan Ganeles, joins Israel National News to speak about his cousin Elan who came to Israel and became deeply connected.
“Elan came to Israel after high school for a year that a lot of American religious Jews do and during that year he decided that he wanted to stay and join the army,” Eitan says. “He became very connected with Israel and with the general cause and he decided to stay.”
After he was drafted into the army, he served for three years. Then he went back to the US to study at Columbia University. But, according to Eitan, he returned to Israel often to visit, and had many friends from his army service. People who were also lone soldiers.”
He adds that “there was much less concern about a two week visit to Israel than there was about living here on a regular basis. I don”t think there is ever the true feeling that it is going to happen to you. Even if his family were nervous, they wanted him to be able to fulfill his dreams. To be in Israel and to be in the army.”

Eitan comments: “I think a lot of people who come from America feel very connected to Israel very quickly. Although life in America can a lot of times be somewhat simpler or there”s still something very special about living in Israel and being an Israeli that maybe isn”t really so tangible or easy to put into words. I definitely feel that”s what Elan felt. He spoke about maybe eventually coming back here. But he spoke very often about how his service was substantial for him and how his family here is substantial for him and the entire experience was very substantial for him.”
He received the horrible news of Elan”s death in yesterday”s terror attack after someone from the American Embassy called his aunt and uncle who live in Connecticut. They contacted his parents who told him around 8:30 p.m. as he was coming home from work.
“It”s a very sincere shock. I don”t think that we completely understand even now what happened. We”re all still in a little bit of a shock,” he says.