Last Friday, when a Palestinian terrorist knocked on her door, entered her house, and started slaughtering her family, Michal Solomon made a swift and silent agreement with her husband, Elad: He will stay behind and fight, she will slip behind the terrorist’s back with her three young children and run upstairs to the room where the couple’s young twins were sleeping. She got to the bedroom, closed the door, and defended it with her body, calling the police with whatever calm she could muster and alerting them to the attack. Downstairs, meanwhile, her husband was slaughtered on his kitchen floor.
Now, Michal’s American family, the Landos, is organizing a crowdfunding campaign to make sure the young widow and mother of five is cared for. Remembering Michal’s generosity, her relatives recalled a sunny young woman who, even as a small child, would never hesitate to give her bed to a visiting cousin and who, later in life, would do everything she could to make ailing and lonely family members feel nourished and loved.
“Three years ago, when my father developed a malignant brain tumor, Michal made it her business to Skype with him every week just to chat and check in,” wrote one relative. “My father always mentioned her calls and I knew it was because her perseverance and consistency was so valuable to him. She was completely abreast of his medical condition at all times. Since my father died, Michal has continued to make my mother feel loved and cared for whenever she visits Israel. When I myself developed cancer, Michal began these same phone calls to me. No matter how many times I didn’t answer the phone, she never stopped calling.”
You can give to the fund by visiting the campaign’s page here.
Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.
