Burying Ari ‘Lion of Israel’ Fuld

Yesterday morning, Rabbi Ari Fuld was stabbed to death by a Palestinian teenager outside a shopping mall near Efrat, at the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem. Fuld is an alumnus of Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, the school where I am studying. I have been living in Israel for less than a month and already someone to whom I feel connected has been killed in a terrorist attack. When Fuld was buried yesterday at midnight, I was one of the thousands in attendance.

Over the last 24 hours, I have learned about this extraordinary man from his family, from our school’s staff and older students, and from the news.

After graduating from New York’s Yeshiva University High School for Boys in 1991, Fuld came to study in Israel and eventually made his home here. He served in the Israeli Defense Forces in an infantry brigade and was lightly injured in the Second Lebanon War. As described in his father’s eulogy, “he went to reserve duty even after he was exempt.” He tore up his papers when they came saying he was no longer required to serve. When asked by his mother how long would he continue to do milluim (IDF reserve duty), Ari replied, “till my dying breath.” He was still fighting as he died, chasing the terrorist and shooting at him, despite being critically wounded from a stab wound to his back.

Fuld worked at Standing Together, an organization that provides support to Israeli soldiers. He worked to make Israeli soldiers more comfortable, recently running a campaign to help IDF soldiers cope with the scorching Israeli summer heat by purchasing cooling devices that go around their necks.

He was perhaps most well-known for his tireless work on social media defending Israel. His Facebook page, “Ari Fuld’s Israel Defense Page” contains numerous posts and self-made videos advocating for Israel’s right to exist. He participated in a weekly televised panel where he routinely argued with his political enemies. Even ideological opponents like Yariv Oppenheimer, former director of Peace Now, and Uri Zaki, one of the leading figures in the Meretz party, publicly mourned the loss of their political foe but real life friend.

Ari taught self-defense to hundreds and was in the emergency unit for Efrat, where he lived. In his wife’s eulogy, she described looking for the first time at a notebook he kept while serving in Lebanon. She read an excerpt from it, showing his faith and belief that Israel should not be scared to stand up to her enemies.

Rabbi Fuld was also a lover of study and teaching Torah. He gave weekly Facebook classes on the portion of the week. As his brother described, “he taught others out of love.” His love was for Judaism and the Jewish people. Every Thursday night he would return to our yeshiva to learn with the Rabbis he first met 25 years ago. Often, he would then broadcast from the Western Wall, a stone’s throw away from the study hall.

After his studies, Fuld had also been on faculty at the school. One alumnus, Yosef Mendelsberg, recalled “While he spoke to everyone in Yeshiva, he spent the majority of his time teaching and encouraging…He was a man that could do everything and made others feel that they could do anything. He had an arsenal of talents but not an ounce of excess pride.”

On the bus ride to the cemetery, I sat next to a uniformed Israeli soldier who had also once studied at Netiv Aryeh. The soldier, originally from the United States, explained that Ari’s speeches had inspired him to enlist, even though the two had never spoken more than a few words to each other.

In her eulogy, Ari’s daughter Tamar quoted her father as having said, “If life isn’t hard, you’re not doing it right.” The lives of the Fuld family and the people who learned from him over the years, will definitely be harder now.