Fogel Girl Speaks Out

N’shei Chabad Newsletter

The following interview was conducted by reporter Sivan Rahav Meir with Tamar Fogel for the 2nd Israeli TV channel. It was translated from Hebrew by Chana Jenny Weisberg. Chana Jenny’s popular website for young Jewish mothers is jewishmom.com. Articles from jewishmom.com are frequently seen in the N’shei Chabad Newsletter.

Tamar Fogel, the girl from Itamar who in one moment lost both of her parents and three of her siblings, has now requested to speak– about her murdered family, about the difficult emotions, and she also has some messages that she has requested to share. Sivan Rahav Meir met today with a 12-year-old girl who grew up overnight.

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Sivan Rahav Meir: What kind of mother and father were they?

Tamar Fogel: The most important thing for them was Jewish unity. That there wouldn’t be divisions within the Jewish people, that there would be oneness. They wanted for everyone to be together, that there wouldn’t be fighting, that there wouldn’t be violence, that there wouldn’t be arguments…

SRM (voiceover): Sometimes it’s hard to believe that Tamar Fogel is only 12 years old. She is the girl who returned to the site of the terror attack in Itamar and is currently sitting shiva for both of her parents and three of her siblings. Today she requested to speak.

SRM: When did you arrive in Itamar?

TF: A year and a half ago.

SRM: Was it a frightening place to live?

TF: No, no, no. Maybe there was a period that was, but now it’s been 6 years that nothing’s happened.

SRM: You didn’t feel like you were living underneath a shadow of…

TF: No, not at all…This whole thing, and all of the things that happen to the Jewish people, they don’t break us, and we are going to keep on settling the Land of Israel. That’s what they want, the truth is…to break us. But they are not succeeding.

SRM (voiceover): She doesn’t talk at all about those moments on Friday night when she returned to her home, and discovered that it had been transformed into the site of a terror attack. She doesn’t talk at all about herself on a personal level. Even the teddy bear that sits beside her has an ideological opinion. She received it from Esther Pollard.

TF: The wife of Jonathan Pollard was here yesterday, and she told me that Jonathan asked her to buy teddy bears and to bring a big hug from him. This teddy bear, Esther Pollard said, “This one is feminine, this is yours. This one is sparkly, this is for Yishai. And this is for Roee because it’s masculine. With the ribbon.”

SRM: Have you been concerned about Pollard’s imprisonment for a long time?

TF: Yes.

SRM: Why?

TF: Not that I did anything about it though…But because Pollard has been sitting there for 28 years, and nobody even pays any attention to him. The State of Israel has neglected him, and the truth is he helped Israel. He is a Tsaddik that he doesn’t hate Israel.

SRM (voiceover): Tens of thousands of people came to the funeral. And thousands more have been crowding into the shiva of Udi’s parents in Neve Tsuf, and at the shiva of Ruti’s parents in Jerusalem. Friends from school, from the army, from the settlement, and from Gush Katif, from where the Fogel family was expelled when Tamar was seven years old.

TF: Also during the expulsion from Gush Katif, we didn’t fight. My parents said, “We will leave. We don’t want to fight with our brothers and sisters.

SRM: During the expulsion? Do you mean that they left their home? You remember that?

TF: Yes. Before the expulsion, my mother wanted to make a big sign that read, “Shake off the dust, arise, put on the clothing of your glory, my people” (Lecha Dodi). That means that the Jewish people…this won’t break us. We will continue. We will get up. We will blossom, we will continue to grow. We will continue to build, to expand…

Yochai Ben Yishai (Tamar’s uncle, Ruti’s brother) during his eulogy at the funeral heading towards Jerusalem Cemetery Har HaMenuchot, said, “Shake it off already! Wake up! Put on the clothing of your glory, my people! We’re not asking for too much! We want You to bring Moshiach, David the son of Yishai! Why is that so complicated?! We don’t want any confusion on this matter!”

SRM: During the funerals, Tamar remained in a car nearby, and didn’t come out. Soon afterwards, Prime Minister Netanyahu came to comfort the mourners at the shiva. And Tamar had something she wanted to tell him personally…

Prime Minister Netanyahu: We understand with whom we are dealing.

TF: And what would happen if you did something? Would America do something to you?

Netanyahu: They murder and we build. We will build. We will build our Land.

TF: (Sobbing)

TF to Interviewer: The Prime Minister said, “They murder us and they try to…and we build. We build. We build. We…just continue on.” So I told him, “And then afterwards you expell people [from their homes].” Because, come on, OK, at the funeral, at the shiva, you say, “We will keep on building and expanding” and all that. But the fact is that in reality they are expelling people from their homes all the time. And during the expulsions, it’s not just expelling people from their homes, there is also a war between brothers going on.

SRM (voiceover): Tamar Fogel still doesn’t know where she and her two younger siblings will grow up, probably with one set of grandparents. In the meantime, family and friends from Itamar surround her. And they remind her that after all her important messages to the Jewish people and the world, she is still just a young girl. [END OF INTERVIEW]

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Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi told me [Chana Jenny Weisberg] that when she visited the Fogel family shiva last week in Jerusalem, Tamar was going from person to person and saying, “Don’t cry! Everything is for the best! Everything is from G-d!”

Rabbanit Yemima predicted that little Tamar, who at such a young age has seen things that no human being should ever have to see, will grow up to be a great leader of the Jewish people.

I spoke on Friday with another friend who visited the Fogel shiva. Ruti Fogel’s mother told my friend that the favorite song of four-year-old Elad Fogel HY”D was “Kee Heerbeta Tovot Alai” which means “Because You, God, have performed exceedingly great kindnesses for me.” Ruti’s mother then said, “G-d has showered us as a family with such a tremendous abundance of gifts. And the truth is that we never asked Him why. And now God has taken away so many of those gifts. And now, too, we are not going to ask Him why…”

What an extraordinary family. My friend told me that the people who came to comfort the mourners found instead that the mourners comforted and inspired them.

None of the members of this family, and especially young Tamar I fear, have an easy road ahead of them.

May Hashem comfort this holy family from this horrific nightmare.

Interview with Tamar Fogel

Elad Fogel’s favorite song

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