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One tragic story among so many..
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | August 3, 2006
NEWTON -- Twenty-six years ago, David Lelchook decided to leave Newton, the city where he was born, played baseball as a child, and captained his high school football team. He wanted to be with his new wife in Israel.
The couple eventually settled on a farm, Kibbutz Saar, just south of Lebanon. She worked at a local hospital. He drove a tractor, tending to rolling groves of pomelo, which is similar to grapefruit. He ate onions he plucked from the ground. He took in stray dogs.
He accepted the dangers of living in a region beset by violence. When Hezbollah rockets began pounding the area around the kibbutz, Lelchook, 52, told his family not to worry.
Yesterday Lelchook was killed, apparently struck by shrapnel from an exploding missile. He had been riding his bike as warning sirens wailed. Bonnie Rose Schulman, spokeswoman for the Israeli consulate in Boston, said Lelchook was struck while riding to a bomb shelter. A friend on the kibbutz said he might have been trying to bring some of his dogs to safety.
News of his death hit hard among those who knew him, in Israel and his former home. His mother, Doris, had been seeing friends at the Newton Senior Center when her other son called to report a family emergency. On the drive home, she heard a radio report of a man killed in northern Israel and prayed it wasn't her son.
``We worried," she said yesterday, as she flipped through photos of her son at her home in Newton Upper Falls. ``But we knew he was where he wanted to be."
Even as a young man, Lelchook was fascinated with the Middle East, said his brother, Alex, 55. At Cornell University, he sat in on meetings of a Palestinian student group.
``David I just think of as being a humanist," his brother said. ``He loved to meet people. He loved to find out about people."
He met his Israeli-born wife, Esther, during a trip to Israel. In 1980, shortly after they married, the two decided to move to the country and start a family.
``David moved because he felt that was the place for him to be," Alex Lelchook said.
Five years later, with two daughters, they moved to Kibbutz Saar, about 15 miles north of Haifa. David quickly developed a reputation as a tireless worker.
``He was a worker of unbelievable discipline, always in his overalls, spraying the citrus or doing other chores night and day," said Zohar Reches, 32, a factory manager at the kibbutz who was on the farm yesterday. ``He would never refuse you, if someone would ask [him], he would say yes."
He also stood out among the other Israeli-born farmers.
``We would always kid him about his `cool' American accent," Reches said. ``He spoke perfect Hebrew, but with an American accent."
Last week, as fighting continued to rage between Israel and Hezbollah, Lelchook told his mother that the missile attacks in his area had become ``vicious," she said.
She spoke to her son for the last time on Tuesday. Lelchook's wife and children, along with all but 70 of the 440 residents of the farm, had fled in recent days.
``We said that we hoped he would be safe, and why didn't he leave the kibbutz?" Doris Lelchook said. ``And he told us that he had to take care of his dogs there."
Yesterday, the family -- including Lelchook's daughters, Yael, 26, a physical therapy student in Israel, and Michal, 23, who was in Pittsburgh at the time of the attack, was planning to reunite for a funeral in Israel.
The family members said that if David Lelchook's death is to have meaning, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah must end.
``There has to be peace," Doris Lelchook said.
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | August 3, 2006
NEWTON -- Twenty-six years ago, David Lelchook decided to leave Newton, the city where he was born, played baseball as a child, and captained his high school football team. He wanted to be with his new wife in Israel.
The couple eventually settled on a farm, Kibbutz Saar, just south of Lebanon. She worked at a local hospital. He drove a tractor, tending to rolling groves of pomelo, which is similar to grapefruit. He ate onions he plucked from the ground. He took in stray dogs.
He accepted the dangers of living in a region beset by violence. When Hezbollah rockets began pounding the area around the kibbutz, Lelchook, 52, told his family not to worry.
Yesterday Lelchook was killed, apparently struck by shrapnel from an exploding missile. He had been riding his bike as warning sirens wailed. Bonnie Rose Schulman, spokeswoman for the Israeli consulate in Boston, said Lelchook was struck while riding to a bomb shelter. A friend on the kibbutz said he might have been trying to bring some of his dogs to safety.
News of his death hit hard among those who knew him, in Israel and his former home. His mother, Doris, had been seeing friends at the Newton Senior Center when her other son called to report a family emergency. On the drive home, she heard a radio report of a man killed in northern Israel and prayed it wasn't her son.
``We worried," she said yesterday, as she flipped through photos of her son at her home in Newton Upper Falls. ``But we knew he was where he wanted to be."
Even as a young man, Lelchook was fascinated with the Middle East, said his brother, Alex, 55. At Cornell University, he sat in on meetings of a Palestinian student group.
``David I just think of as being a humanist," his brother said. ``He loved to meet people. He loved to find out about people."
He met his Israeli-born wife, Esther, during a trip to Israel. In 1980, shortly after they married, the two decided to move to the country and start a family.
``David moved because he felt that was the place for him to be," Alex Lelchook said.
Five years later, with two daughters, they moved to Kibbutz Saar, about 15 miles north of Haifa. David quickly developed a reputation as a tireless worker.
``He was a worker of unbelievable discipline, always in his overalls, spraying the citrus or doing other chores night and day," said Zohar Reches, 32, a factory manager at the kibbutz who was on the farm yesterday. ``He would never refuse you, if someone would ask [him], he would say yes."
He also stood out among the other Israeli-born farmers.
``We would always kid him about his `cool' American accent," Reches said. ``He spoke perfect Hebrew, but with an American accent."
Last week, as fighting continued to rage between Israel and Hezbollah, Lelchook told his mother that the missile attacks in his area had become ``vicious," she said.
She spoke to her son for the last time on Tuesday. Lelchook's wife and children, along with all but 70 of the 440 residents of the farm, had fled in recent days.
``We said that we hoped he would be safe, and why didn't he leave the kibbutz?" Doris Lelchook said. ``And he told us that he had to take care of his dogs there."
Yesterday, the family -- including Lelchook's daughters, Yael, 26, a physical therapy student in Israel, and Michal, 23, who was in Pittsburgh at the time of the attack, was planning to reunite for a funeral in Israel.
The family members said that if David Lelchook's death is to have meaning, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah must end.
``There has to be peace," Doris Lelchook said.