On Thursday evening, Palestinian terrorists carried out a shooting attack targeting Jews driving in a car near Shavei Shomron in Samaria, murdering Yehuda Dimentman, age 25, a husband and father to a nine-month-old son. Two other Jewish men identified as Avia Entman and Neriya Shlomo Feldman were wounded in the terrorist attack.

The other passenger in the car, Neria Feldman, said, “Yehuda was sitting behind me and yelled that he had a bullet in his neck and really started to have a hard time breathing. I was calling into emergency services so they would know where we were.”

Young father, husband, friend, student of the Bible

Dimentman was a resident of Shavei Shomron and a student at the Homesh yeshivah.

Hundreds of mourners attended the eulogy in Homesh on Friday morning before preceding to the Har Hamenuhot Cemetery in Jerusalem where Dimentman was buried. 

One of the injured, Aviah Entman, said of Dimentman, “He was my friend. He was a really good guy. He was a very sweet person and was welcoming to everyone who wanted to speak with him. We got to talk a lot.”

He added, “It’s hard for me to believe he’s no longer with us. Just in our last conversation today he came to me all happy and said, ‘Today I won something.’ I asked him what happened and he told me his wife had asked him to take care of his child for a while. He said he was happy he would be with the child.”

Dimentman’s older brother, Shlomi, told Ynet, “It’s a huge loss. I still haven’t absorbed it.”

“Yehuda continued in the world of Torah, even though it did not go easily for him, but he knew it was his mission,” eulogized the victim’s brother, Shlomi Dimentman, according to the Ynet news site. “He was everywhere he felt was needed; everyone loved him.”

He added that “the Arabs here are celebrating and happy to see how we are humiliated, mainly by the High Court of Justice and other haters of Israel aiding them.”

“We will be here and remain here. May God avenge his blood.”

The head of his yeshiva, Rabbi Elishama Cohen, mourned him, saying:

“Our Yehudah, a soldier without a uniform, a soldier of devotion to the Land of Israel. This terrorist who hit you wants to hit each and every member of the holy group standing here. Homesh will say in a clear and distinct voice that this entire place is ours.”

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan also eulogized Dimentman, noting that he chose to study in Homesh in order to strengthen the Jewish presence in the Biblical heartland. 

“Yehuda was only nine when that happened,” recalled Dagan. “As a young boy he chose to carry the banner of that struggle so he could bring us home.” Dimentman, he said, came to the Homesh Yeshiva “in rain, in the cold, in the scorching heat of summer. When time and time again they [the IDF] came to evacuate them – he sat and studied Torah, and prayed that the people of Israel would recover, that we would all return together to our homes, to our land, without fear.”

At the funeral procession, Religious Zionism Chairman MK Bezalel Smotrich paraphrased the section of the Torah describing Yehuda (Judah) descending to Egypt (Genesis 46:28):

“Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to teach him, to show him the way’,” Smotrich said. “[God] sent Yehudah to teach us, all of us, what we haven’t succeeded in doing to this day – return to Homesh. Increase the yeshiva. This is what will happen, with the help of God, even if we have not succeeded to date, it will happen. Sorry, Ethia [Dimentman’s widow] and David [his orphaned son], the family, for not doing enough. That we didn’t do before.”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted out on Thursday night:

“Yehudah was murdered only because he was a Jew living in his country. An inconceivable reality that we will never come to terms with. We will not be silent until we are caught and treated the heinous murderers.”

Israel365 stepping up to help

Following the attack, the Nation of Israel and the nations worldwide are chipping in to help Yehuda’s widow Ethia and orphan survive the coming months. That’s because Yehuda was their breadwinner. He worked hard to provide food and shelter for his family. But now that he’s no longer with us, his family’s financial wellbeing is in jeopardy. Food, rent, and basic utilities need to be paid. That’s why Israel365 is seeking donations from friends of Israel worldwide. This is a great way to bless Israel this holiday season. The stress of losing her husband and breadwinner so soon is already too much for Ethia to handle. Adding financial woes can cause her to suffer even more. That’s why Israel365 is helping the family put their mind at ease. You can put her mind at ease knowing that for the next few months, you, a friend of the Jewish people, is there for her in her time of need.

That’s why Israel365 is asking all of its readers to donate whatever they can to help. This is the best way you can bless Israel and be a part of healing the nation’s war wounds.