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‘Now it’s our turn to support him’: Crowds throng funeral of Israeli-American man killed in West Bank
RA’ANANA, Israel (JTA) — Recurring bouts of laughter were some of the most remarkable moments of the funeral of Elan Ganeles, the 27-year-old Jewish American from West Hartford, Connecticut, who was shot dead this week when driving through the West Bank.
Descriptions of an incredibly kind, open minded, funny, brilliant and humble young man came in sharp contrast to calls by the official representative of the Israeli government at the funeral to avenge the death of those who harm Jews in the Land of Israel.
“No one will raise a hand against a Jew in the Land of Israel,” said the representative, Rabbi Michael Eliyahu, who serves as Israel’s minister of heritage and is a member of the far-right Jewish Power party.
The contrast played out throughout the funeral, attended by nearly a thousand people in Ra’anana, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
Friends and family members remembered Elan as a caring and unique individual who brought joy to their lives, while those who did not know the recent Columbia University graduate, who was in Israel for a friend’s wedding, framed his heartbreaking story as the latest tragedy in Israel’s decades-old conflict with the Palestinians.
As Ganeles’ brothers and friends took turns, standing before his body wrapped in a shroud and laid out before them, they alternately choked up and laughed as they told stories about his love for learning and, for his friends, his disarming frankness and his “annoyingness.”
Mourners surround the grave of Elan Ganeles, killed Feb. 27 in the West Bank, at his funeral in Raanana, March 1, 2023. (Orly Halpern)
“Elan was intelligent, curious, goofy, idiosyncratic – and most famously lovably annoying,” said Akiva Raklin, a close friend of Elan, who knew him “since birth,” as people laughed aloud. “I know calling someone annoying at their funeral is a little less than traditional, but Elan was the only person on the face of the earth for whom this characteristic was absolutely positive in every way.”
Ganeles, recalled Raklin, would pose “intrusive questions” to his closest friends, making them “blush and cringe,” but they all saw his behavior for what it was: an expression of closeness and caring. “With every comment he made, no matter how irritating it was or how uncomfortable it would make someone, it would just make them closer to him,” he said, sparking chuckles and laughs from those who clearly knew him well.
Some of Ganeles’s friends came from abroad to attend the funeral, as did his family’s rabbi from Young Israel of West Hartford, who accompanied his physician parents on their trip to Israel.
“Elan was the ultimate friend,” said Ari Zaken, his roommate from New York, recounting a conversation they had in which Ganeles pulled out a list of over 100 close friends he made sure to keep in touch with.
Ganeles, an avid learner, traveler and birdwatcher, lived a life packed with knowledge and friends.
“He completed two majors in college, only one of which he planned to use, just because he loved to learn,” said his younger brother, Gabe. “He worked two jobs simply because he had so much interest in what he could learn from both. He was our resident expert in geography, history, travel, birds. He loved trivia and made trivia games for family and friends and he was able to finish the hardest crosswords in record time.”
Gabe ended his eulogy, breaking down in sobs: “Elan was my brother, my best friend and a huge inspiration to me. And I will miss him,”
On Monday, Elan dropped Gabe off at a train station in the north and then made his way south on Route 90, which passes through the length of the West Bank, alongside the border with Jordan, on his way to attend a friend’s wedding in Jerusalem that night. On the road that goes around the city of Jericho, he was shot by a Palestinian gunman.
“I was so lucky that I got to spend the last week of his life with him,” said Gabe, recalling their trips through historical sites in Israel in the past week. ”He used his unique skill of complete unabashedness to bring people together at every chance he got,” said Gabe. “Despite his brashness, Elan was the most thoughtful person I know.”
The Ganeles family tried to avoid turning his funeral into a political event and reportedly requested TV networks not to attend the ceremony. “He’s a friend of ours, not just another victim,” said Jamie Landau, 27, who went to a five-month ulpan in August 2015 with Elan Ganeles on kibbutz Sde Eliyahu. Afterwards, both joined the Israeli army. Elan served in the Mofet Unit as a computer programmer, working on soldiers’ salaries.
Nevertheless, Heritage Minister Michael Eliyahu had a clear message: “I tell you as a minister in the state of Israel … I say, ‘we failed’ and we need to do everything so that won’t happen.” The newly appointed cabinet minister went on to call for revenge following Elan’s murder. “It’s not acceptable that a Jew who comes to this country will be scared to be here,” Eliyahu said. “And if we do have haters, may God avenge their blood and we will avenge their blood.”
As the funeral was being held, Israeli forces raided a Palestinian refugee camp adjacent to the city of Jericho, not far from where Ganeles was killed, and apprehended four Palestinians, one of them suspected of carrying out the shooting attack that killed Ganeles and the other of assisting him. Another Palestinian was killed during the raid.
People pack the funeral of Elan Ganeles, who was killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank, in (Flash90)
Hundreds of people attended the funeral, filling Ra’anana’s old cemetery to the brim. More watched from outside the cemetery walls, listening to a live feed of the eulogies on each others’ cell phones. The majority were religious and did not know Ganeles, showing up out of a sense of duty and a wish to pay respect to the slain Jewish American visiting Israel. Some marched in with large Israeli flags, giving the private funeral ceremony an air of a national event.
Elan Ganeles was raised in a Modern Orthodox family in Connecticut and attended yeshiva in Israel after graduating from high school. He then decided to stay in Israel and served for two years in the IDF before returning to the United States to attend college.
Liora Lutrin, a 15-year-old student from Amit Rananim religious girls’ high school, who made aliyah a year and a half ago, stood with her classmates singing “Our brothers of all of the House of Israel.”
“We came with our school to show respect,” said Lutrin, who had five earrings in her right ear and wore a gray T-shirt and an above-the-knee black skirt. “He sacrificed his life to come here and be a soldier in Israel and even though he didn’t die as a soldier, he supported our country and now it’s our turn to support him.”
Or Cohen, a 25-year-old student wearing sandals, who came during a lunch break from his yeshiva in Ramat Gan, said it “was the least I could do.” Cohen, originally from Otniel settlement, said, “I heard he’s a new immigrant, someone whose parents don’t live here. I came in identification with the pain of the people, to show respect for my brother, who was murdered. This is bigger than us.”
After the funeral ended, dozens of people lingered near the grave.
After the funeral of Elan Ganeles in Ra’anana, Israel, friends loitered by the grave while a beggar, a common presence at Israeli funerals, sat nearby. (Orly Halpern)
Joining them was Mordechai Goldberg, a 70-year-old religious beggar with a stained white shirt and a cheap black suit jacket, who arrived from Jerusalem to attend and to panhandle at the cemetery, a common sight in Israeli cemeteries. Goldberg entered the circle of people around his grave and began saying the Kaddish prayer. The crowd automatically answered with ‘Amen.’ When the prayer ended, he began calling for the death of Arabs. “We will all pray to God that all of the Arabs die under our feet, now,” said Goldberg as some of the people responded with ‘Amen,’ while others remained baffled by the call.
“I don’t think that would represent Elan’s opinions,” said a young religious woman with an American accent, whose eyes were red from crying, and whose brother was another of Elan’s ‘best friends.’ “He wasn’t like that,” she said.
Indeed, Elan’s uncle, Dov Ganeles told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Elan marveled over his uncle’s friendship with an Arab colleague.
“He thought it was lovely that such a relationship could exist and be normal,” said Dov Ganeles. “He was proud of that, that that relationship could exist. It was something to cherish.”
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A French Court Acquitted a Nanny Who Poisoned a Jewish Family of Antisemitism. Now Prosecutors Are Appealing.
Procession arrives at Place des Terreaux with a banner reading, “Against Antisemitism, for the Republic,” during the march against antisemitism, in Lyon, France, June 25, 2024. Photo: Romain Costaseca / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
Prosecutors in France have appealed a court ruling that convicted a nanny of poisoning the food of the Jewish family for whom she worked but cleared her of antisemitism charges, in the latest flashpoint as French authorities grapple with an ongoing nationwide surge in antisemitism.
On Tuesday, the public prosecutor’s office in Nanterre, just west of Paris, announced it had appealed a criminal court ruling that acquitted the family’s nanny of antisemitism-aggravated charges after she poisoned their food and drinks.
Last week, the 42-year-old Algerian woman was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for “administering a harmful substance that caused incapacitation for more than eight days.”
Residing illegally in France, the nanny had worked as a live-in caregiver for the family and their three children — aged two, five, and seven — since November 2023.
The French court declined to uphold any antisemitism charges against the defendant, noting that her incriminating statements were made several weeks after the incident and recorded by a police officer without a lawyer present
The family’s lawyers described the ruling as “incomprehensible,” insisting that “justice has not been served.”
The nanny, who has been living in France in violation of a deportation order issued in February 2024, was also convicted of using a forged document — a Belgian national identity card — and barred from entering France for five years.
First reported by Le Parisien, the shocking incident occurred in January last year, just two months after the caregiver was hired, when the mother discovered cleaning products in the wine she drank and suffered severe eye pain from using makeup remover contaminated with a toxic substance, prompting her to call the police.
After a series of forensic tests, investigators detected polyethylene glycol — a chemical commonly used in industrial and pharmaceutical products — along with other toxic substances in the food consumed by the family and their three children.
According to court documents, these chemicals were described as “harmful, even corrosive, and capable of causing serious injuries to the digestive tract.”
Even though the nanny initially denied the charges against her, she later confessed to police that she had poured a soapy lotion into the family’s food as a warning because “they were disrespecting her.”
“They have money and power, so I should never have worked for a Jewish woman — it only brought me trouble,” the nanny told the police. “I knew I could hurt them, but not enough to kill them.”
According to her lawyer, the nanny later withdrew her confession, arguing that jealousy and a perceived financial grievance were the main factors behind the attack.
At trial, the defendant described her statements as “hateful” but denied that her actions were driven by racism or antisemitism.
The appeal comes as France continues to face a steep rise in antisemitic incidents in the wake of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
In a disturbing new case, French authorities have also opened an investigation after a social media video went viral showing a man harassing a young Jewish child at a Paris airport, shouting “free Palestine” and calling him a “pig.”
Widely circulated online, the video shows a young boy playing a video game at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport when a man approaches, grabs his toy, and begins verbally assaulting him.
“Are you gonna free Palestine, bro?” the man, who remains off-camera, yells at the boy.
“If you don’t free them, I’ll snatch your hat off, bro,” the assailant continues, referring to the child’s kippah.
ANTISEMITIC INCIDENT AT PARIS–CDG AIRPORT :
Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at around 7:00 a.m, in the PlayStation Zone
of Terminal 2B at Paris–Charles de Gaulle Airport, a man in his early 30s, speaking with a British accent
, verbally and physically targeted two… pic.twitter.com/8XY3ze0EYb
— SwordOfSalomon (@SwordOfSalomon) December 21, 2025
The man is also heard repeatedly telling the child, “Dance, pig,” while the confused and frightened boy is seen trying to comply
Local police confirmed that an investigation has been launched into the incident, classified as violence based on race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion, as authorities work to identify the individual and bring him to justice.
Paris police chief Patrice Faure expressed his “outrage at these unacceptable and intolerable remarks,” promising that the incident “will not go unpunished.”
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) — the main representative body of French Jews — condemned the incident, calling it “yet another illustration of the climate of antisemitism that has prevailed in Europe” since the Hamas-led atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023.
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Pennsylvania School Board Votes to Fire Principal Over ‘Jew Money’ Comments
Philip Leddy, principal of Lower Gwynedd Elementary School in Pennsylvania, faces termination for allegedly making antisemitic comments. Photo: Screenshot
The Wissahickon School District Board in Pennsylvania has voted to terminate a school principal who confessed to leaving an antisemitic voicemail on the answering machine service of a Jewish parent.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Philip Leddy, principal of Lower Gwynedd Elementary School (LGE), spoke of a “Jew camp,” “Jew money,” and argued that Jews “control the banks” in reference to a Jewish parent he had called but did not reach. The remarks were recorded when Leddy forgot to hang up his line after the parent, whom he at one point suggested is most likely an attorney for being Jewish, did not take the call. Having assumed that what he was about to say was private, he then reportedly launched into the tirade before an audience of at least one other district employee also present in the room.
During a meeting on Tuesday, members of the school board voted to fire Leddy, acting on the recommendation of Wissahickon School District superintendent Mwenyewe Dawan — who has herself been accused of promoting and showing bias toward anti-Zionist viewpoints by the North American Values Institute (NAVI). According to local reports, an interim principal, Sue Kanopka, has already been serving in Leddy’s place since Monday.
“Mrs. Kanopka is a familiar and trusted leader in the LGE community and is pleased to provide continuity and stability for students and staff,” Dawan said in a statement shared by a local NBC affiliate.
Dawan also announced a discussion series on antisemitism that will include local Jewish groups.
“We will be partnering with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s Jewish Community Relations Council to facilitate these structured conversations, focused on listening, understanding impact, and moving forward together,” she said. “This session will be designed to listen, learn, and better understand the experiences and concerns of our Jewish community members.”
Leddy’s comments stunned the local community, Jewish and non-Jewish, and on Friday the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia said they betrayed a “mindset” that is indicative of a “broader, systemic issue.”
“The presence of others in the room, the lack of challenge or interruption, and the comfort with which these remarks were spoken raise serious questions about culture, accountability, and oversight within the school environment,” the group said. “We understand the district is also investigating the involvement of others whose voices are audible on the recording, which is a necessary and appropriate step. Words spoken behind closed doors matter. When those words reflect bias, they erode trust and harm entire communities.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Wissahickon School District has been flagged for previously fostering what some parents described as antisemitic bias.
In June, it was revealed that the district is presenting as fact an anti-Zionist account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to its K-12 students by using it as the basis for courses taken by honors students.
Then earlier this month, reports emerged that during a recent demonstration at Wissahickon High School, a Muslim student group festooned signs which said, “Jerusalem is ours,” offered cash prizes related to anti-Israel activism, and swayed school principal Dr. Lynne Blair into being photographed with them, a feat which, according to concerns members of the community, created the impression that anti-Zionism is a viewpoint held by the administration.
Public sector education unions have played a major role in turning K-12 classrooms across the country into theaters of anti-Zionist agitation, thereby alienating Jewish teachers and students, according to a report issued by the Defense of Freedom Institute (DFI) in September.
Titled, “Breaking Solidarity: How Antisemitic Activists Turned Teacher Unions Against Israel”, the report examined several major teachers unions and their escalation of anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish activity following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel — a series of actions which included attempting to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), staging protests in which teachers led chants of “Death to Israel,” and teaching students that Israel constitutes an “settler-colonial” state which perpetrates ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.
In New York City, report author Paul Zimmerman wrote, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) has advanced from fostering popular support for anti-Zionism among students to seeking cover from government by placing one or more of its fellow travelers in high office. The UFT endorsed the New York City mayoral candidacy of Zohran Mamdani in July, calling the avowed socialist and Hamas sympathizer a potential “partner.”
“The historical record shows that, whatever their shortcomings, previous generations of teacher-union leaders stood up to antisemitism in K-12 schools on behalf of their Jewish members and promoted strong US support for Israel in the face of existential attacks on that country,” the report said. “Now, antisemitic activists grossly dishonor that legacy by weaponizing teacher unions to spread antisemitism, intimidate Jewish teachers, and recast the classroom as a battlefield against the West.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Yehuda Gur-Arye and Shiri Shapira win Rubinlicht Prize for Literature
דער אָנגעזעענער פּאָעט און רעדאַקטאָר יהודה גור־אריה און די טאַלאַנטירטע שרײַבערין שירי שפּירא זענען הײַיאָר געוואָרן די לאַורעאַטן פֿון דעם רובינליכט־פּריז. די אויסטיילונג פֿון די פּריזן איז פֿאָרגעקומען דורך זום דעם 16טן דעצעמבער.
די פּרעמיע ווערט געשטיצט פֿון דער פֿונדאַציע אויפֿן נאָמען פֿון אַנאַ און לייב רובינליכט, וועלכער איז אַליין געווען אַ ייִדישער פּאָעט. די פֿונדאַציע, וואָס איז פֿאַרלייגט געוואָרן אין 1986, טיילט צו יערלעכע פּרעמיעס פֿאַר ליטעראַרישער און קולטורעלער טעטיקייט אויף ייִדיש און לטובֿת ייִדיש.
יהודה גור-אריה איז אַ פּאָעט, איבערזעצער און רעדאַקטאָר אין ייִדיש און אין העברעיִש. אַ געבוירענער אין בעסאַראַביע אין 1934 האָט ער דורכגעמאַכט דרײַ יאָר אין טראַנסניסטריע. ער האָט יונגערהייט עולה געווען און זיך באַזעצט אין אלומות, אין עמק הירדן. צענדליקער ביכער האָט ער איבערגעזעצט פֿון ייִדיש אויף העברעיִש, רומעניש און רוסיש. צו זײַן ליד „כפֿל“ האָט נחום היימאַן קאָמפּאָנירט מוזיק און דאָס ליד האָט געזונגען די באַרימטע זינגערין חוה אַלבערשטיין.
אַ גרויסע צאָל ביכער האָט גור־אריה אַרויסגעגעבן; צווישן זיי — „זערורים“, „לידער אין בלוי“, „מיניאַטורן“ (1966); „שבחי קיץ“, לידער (1978); „תעלולי טלי“, דערציילונגען פֿאַר קינדער (1983); „צבעי פרפר“, לידער און אַ צאָל אַנדערע ווערק.
ער האָט אויף העברעיִש איבערגעזעצט ייִדישע ווערק פֿון עלי שעכטמאַן, לייב ראָכמאַן, יצחק באַשעוויס-זינגער, מרים יהבֿ, יהושע פּערלאַ, יענטע מאַש, ש. ל. שנײַדערמאַן, י. י. טרונק און אַלכּסנדר שפּיגלבלאַט, ווי אויך אַן אַנטאָלאָגיע פֿון ייִדישע אַרבעטער־לידער און יאַפּאַנישע לידער.
דער זשורי, וואָס איז באַשטאַנען פֿון טובֿה רעשטיק-דודזאָן, רוני כּהן און דניאל גלאי יהודה גור-אריה, האָט געמאָלדן אַז יהודה גור-אריהן האָט פֿאַרדינט דעם פּריז צוליב „זײַנע ליטעראַרישע שאַפֿונגען אויף עטלעכע זשאַנערן ווי דיכטונג, פּראָזע און דערציילונגען, זײַנע פֿאַרשידנאַרטיקע איבערזעצונגען פֿון ייִדיש, רומעניש און רוסיש וועלכע האָבן באַרײַכערט אונדזער ליטעראַטור, און זײַן אַלגעמיינעם בײַטראָג במשך יאָרן צום קולטור-לעבן אין ישׂראל.“
שירי שפּירא איז אַ יונגע ייִדיש-פּראָזאַיִקערין וואָס איז געבוירן געוואָרן אין ישׂראל אין 1987 און וווינט הײַנט אין ירושלים. די טעג איז זי אַ דאָקטאָראַנטקע בײַם בן-גוריון אוניווערסיטעט, וווּ זי לערנט אויך ייִדיש-קלאַסן. זי האָט אויף העברעיִש איבערגעזעצט די ראָמאַנען פֿון מאַקסים בילער, מאַרלען האַוסהאָפֿער, רות אָזעקי און ריטשאַרד פאַווערס, און טעקסטן פֿון פֿרידריך העלדערלין, דניאל קעלמאַן, ישׂראל ראַבאָן און דבֿורה פֿאָגעל. זי איז אויך אַ רעדאַקטאָרשע אין „המוסך“, אַ העברעיִשן ליטעראַטור־זשורנאַל. אירע ייִדישע דערציילונגען זענען געדרוקט געוואָרן אין די זשורנאַלן „ייִדישלאַנד“, „אויפֿן שוועל“ און „די גאָלדענע פּאַווע“.
הײַיאָר דערשײַנט אין לייוויק-פֿאַרלאַג איר ערשטלינג „די צוקונפֿט“, אַ באַנד דערציילונגען. אַ טייל פון זיי זענען געדרוקט געוואָרן אין ליטעראַרישע זשורנאַלן און אַנדערע זענען אין גאַנצן נײַע שאַפֿונגען. דאָס בוך איז אַן אויסדרוק פֿון אַ פֿרוי, אַ שרײַבערין, וואָס איז אויסגעוואַקסן אין ישׂראל מיט אַלע אירע טראַוומעס און קאָנפֿליקטן, און אַ טיפֿן גלויבן אין דער צוקונפֿט.
דער זשורי האָט געזאָגט אַז שפּירא האָט פֿאַרדינט דעם פּריז „פֿאַר אירע ליטעראַרישע, אייגנאַרטיקע שאַפֿונגען וועלכע שטיצן זיך אויף טיפֿע קענטענישן פֿון דער ייִדישער שפּראַך און ליטעראַטור, מיט די פֿאַרשידענע קוואַלן פֿון וועלכע זי שעפּט אַ זעלטענע אַטמאָספֿער און אינספּיראַציע.“
אין איר דאַנקרעדע בײַם באַקומען די פּרעמיע האָט שפּירא אָפֿן־האַרציק אויסגעדריקט אירע געדאַנקען:
„איך פֿיל זיך אַ ביסל אומגעלומפּערט באַקומענדיק אַ פּרעמיע, בפֿרט ווי אַ שרײַבערין וואָס פּובליקירט אַ בוך אויף אַ שפּראַך וואָס איז ניט איר מאַמע-לשון. אָבער איך האָב אַ חשד, אַז אַלע דורות ייִדישע שרײַבערס האָבן זיך געפֿילט ניט באַהאַוונט אין עפּעס אַ זאַך. מסתּמא האָבן זיך ס׳רובֿ פֿון זיי גאָר היימיש געפֿילט אויף מאַמע-לשון, אָבער אָפֿט זענען זיי געווען מענטשן וואָס האָבן געדאַרפֿט זיך שאַפֿן אַ נײַע היים, און אַ נײַע אידענטיטעט, אַ מאָדערנע, אַ וועלטלעכע. אַזאַ פּאָזיציע איז בדרך-כּלל אַ טייל פֿונעם זײַן אַ קינסטלער, און אַ שרײַבער בפֿרט. און גיכער – זי איז אַ טייל פֿונעם ווערן אַ קינסטלער. די אומזיכערע צוגעהעריקייט איז אויך אַ מין אומגעלומפּערטקייט, און אויך אַ שעפֿערישע קראַפֿט. איך אַליין פּרוּוו זי אויסצוניצן ווען איך שרײַב אויף אַ שפּראַך אין וועלכער איך בין נאָך אַלץ אַ גאַסט.
„עס איז ניט גענוג צו זײַן אַ גאַסט אין אַ נאָך אומבאַקאַנטער שטוב. אַ נײַער קינסטלער דאַרף זײַן אַן אָנגעלייגטער גאַסט, אָדער בקיצור – מע דאַרף אַן עולם. דער זשורי פֿונעם רובינליכט-פּריז גיט מיר אַזוי אַ מין צוזאָג אויף אַן עולם. דאָס צוטיילן דעם פּריז אויך יהודה גור-אריה, אַ שרײַבער און איבערזעצער פֿונעם עלטערן דור, איז פֿאַר מיר אויך אַ צוזאָג אַז דער עולם וויל נאָך בלײַבן אויף לאַנגע יאָרן. איך וויל דאָ אויסדריקן אַ האַרציקן דאַנק פֿאַר אָט דער פֿאַרבעטונג, און אויך אַ האָפֿענונג אַז ווײַטערע אָנגעלייגטע געסט וועלן נאָך אָנקומען אין דער ייִדישער ליטעראַטור, און אַז זיי וועלן נאָך בלײַבן.“
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