Ed Lasky sent me this article on the story behind the White House Menorah and why President Bush requested this specific one:
The menorah lit on the first night of Chanukah on the White House lawn in Washington was built to honor the memory of Noam Apter, a 23-year-old yeshiva student in Israel who was murdered while preventing a likely terrorist attack.
Apter locked himself and three other student workers in the Otniel Yeshiva kitchen in Hebron with two rifle-toting Islamic Jihad terrorists dressed as Israeli soldiers to prevent them from entering the dining room where 70 students were eating the Shabbat meal, according to Israeli National News.
The three students — Yehuda Bamberger, 20, of Karnei Shomron; Tsvi Ziemen, 18, of Reut; and Gavriel Hoter, 17, of Alonei HaBashan in the Golan — also were killed. Israeli soldiers posted nearby heard the gunfire, chased down the terrorists and killed them.
The menorah was built by a Florida congregation with a picture of Apter alongside it. President George W. Bush heard about the menorah and Apter’s sacrifice to save his fellow students, and requested that it be lit at the White House this year, according to INN.
At BtB, Anne Lieberman does her usual great job of collating articles and pictures about this, with a pithy title. Hat tip as well to Clarity & Resolve.
The congregation is the Boca Raton Synagogue, which has a link on its site to the White House video of the menorah lighting — worth viewing, not only for President Bush’s eloquent words, but for the music that follows.
From the Free Republic thread on this:
May God bless the President for his action and may the memory of that young hero be cherished and honored by all decent people.
