The son of Israel’s ambassador to Washington, a reservist who kept serving after his brother fell in Gaza, is fighting for his life after a terrorist ramming attack
From Pastor John Hagee and Christians United for Israel to Paula White-Cain and the National Faith Advisory Board, and from U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee to the Black Christian Leadership Council on Israel Relations, Christians across America are praying for the life of a wounded Israeli soldier. In Israel, the call is echoing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog to the terror victims’ organization OneFamily, and from the right-wing government to a Reform rabbi in the opposition. They are praying for Neria Dov ben Chana, 39, the son of Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter. He lies in critical condition in Jerusalem, and his father says he needs a miracle.
“We need a miracle,” Ambassador Leiter said from Shaare Zedek Medical Center. “Jews, Christians, anyone who cares about this phenomenon of the return of the people of Israel to their land.” He said that “hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions by now, are praying together, Jews and non-Jews, for the recovery of our Neria.”
The Attack
On Wednesday, September 23, a 29-year-old terrorist from the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta drove his car into Israeli forces at the Maccabim checkpoint on Route 443, the highway linking Modi’in and Jerusalem. Neria, a reservist, took the full force of the impact. Troops at the scene shot the terrorist dead.
Neria was rushed unconscious to Shaare Zedek, where surgeons operated on his brain for hours. “His condition is stable,” said Prof. Alexander Yoskovich of the hospital’s neurosurgery department. “His condition is still serious and his life remains in danger.”
Neria is an economist, a father of four and a resident of Havat Yair in Samaria. He has served some 450 days of reserve duty since October 7. His older brother, Maj. Moshe Yedidya Leiter, a company commander, was killed fighting Hamas in Gaza in November 2023. After Moshe fell, Neria moved to a rear-echelon position. He later returned to combat duty. Days before the attack, he led the Yom Kippur prayers in his community.
“You can’t get used to it. We’re still in shock,” his mother, Chana Leiter, told Army Radio. “I was afraid when he served in Lebanon, but so close to home?”
While the family waited outside the operating room, Neria’s sister Sarah went into premature labor at the hospital and gave birth to a daughter 40 meters from her brother’s bed. She named the baby Shaked.
A Wave of Terror
The attack came three days after terror struck in Judea and Samaria on the eve of Yom Kippur. On Sunday, September 20, a Hamas terrorist opened fire on Netanel Shukrun, a father of six from Alei Zahav, at a spring near Neve Tzuf. In his final moments, Shukrun shouted a warning that saved the life of his 16-year-old son, Yoav. “Thank you for shouting to me when the terrorist came in,” Yoav said at his father’s funeral. “Thank you for saving my life.” Two weeks earlier, a terrorist stabbed a 20-year-old farmer at the Maoz Yehuda farm in Samaria. He survived his wounds.
The Leiter family has already paid a terrible price in this war. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has buried more than 1,150 soldiers and security personnel, according to Defense Ministry figures released on the war’s second anniversary. Moshe Leiter is among them.
“I Shall Not Die, But Live”
Christians United for Israel, the largest pro-Israel organization in America, called on its members to join Pastor John Hagee in prayer. “We pray that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will preserve Neria’s life, bring complete healing and restoration, and grant wisdom and strength to every medical professional caring for him,” CUFI wrote, quoting the Psalmist: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD” (Psalms 118:17).
Pastor Paula White-Cain, head of the White House Faith Office and founder of the National Faith Advisory Board, led a prayer for Neria’s “supernatural healing.” She asked God to heal him “from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet” and to “invade that hospital room” with His healing power. Invoking God as “the LORD that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26), she recalled that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, “there was not a feeble one among his tribes” (Psalms 105:37). She prayed for Ambassador Leiter, his wife and the entire family, asking God to “hold them tight,” and declared her faith that “there will be a good report even in the next 24 hours.” She closed by calling on “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
The Black Christian Leadership Council on Israel Relations, founded this summer by Pastor Dumisani Washington, Dr. Michael A. Stevens and other Black church leaders, called on pastors, congregations and prayer networks around the world to pray for Neria Dov ben Chana by name. “We believe, with Ambassador Leiter, that when the people of God unite, miracles happen,” the Council said. “Our global prayer network is already engaged.” The Council condemned the attack “without reservation.” In November, it plans to bring some 500 Black American and African Christian leaders to Israel, completing the pilgrimage Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. planned for 1967.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, pointed to the family’s sacrifice. “They lost a son in Gaza, killed by Hamas,” he wrote. “Now a Palestinian terrorist attempts to murder IDF soldiers.”
Israel Prays as One
Netanyahu visited the family at Shaare Zedek about an hour before flying to New York for the UN General Assembly. He said that he, “together with all the people of Israel,” is “praying for a miracle,” and called on Israelis to pray for Neria Dov ben Chana. President Herzog offered a prayer “for the complete and speedy recovery of Neria Leiter.” Defense Minister Israel Katz told the family: “I stand with you and your family, and I pray alongside the entire nation.”
The prayers cross Israel’s political lines. MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv, a leader of Israel’s Reform movement and a member of the opposition, wrote: “Our hearts pray for the recovery of Neriah Leiter.” He noted that “the news is all the more horrific considering Neriah is the brother of Moshe z”l, who fell during the war against Hamas,” and added: “May our prayers for Neriah be fulfilled.” In the United States, ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt prayed for “a refuah shlema for Neria Dov ben Chana,” a complete recovery.
OneFamily, which supports Israeli victims of terror and bereaved families, launched a worldwide call. “Neria needs a miracle. Please pray for him,” the organization wrote. “Please say a chapter of Tehillim,” the Book of Psalms. “This family has already endured the unbearable loss of one precious son. Let us unite in prayer that Neria will return home to his parents and loved ones.” The family itself has asked the public to recite Psalms. A family friend, Elkana Ariel, described Neria as “beloved in the community, always walking around with a smile,” and called on “all the people of Israel to keep praying.”
Five Words and a Mother’s Name
The Bible records the shortest prayer for healing ever spoken, offered by a brother for his sister. When Miriam was struck with leprosy, Moses did not deliver a long speech. He cried out in five Hebrew words, El na refa na la:
“And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying: ‘Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee'” (Numbers 12:13).
God answered, and Miriam was healed. The Sages learned from Moses that a prayer for the sick does not need to be long. It needs to come from the heart. Neria’s own brother, Moshe, gave his life for Israel in Gaza. Today, millions of Jews and Christians are offering Moses’ prayer for Moshe’s brother.
The people praying for Neria all call him by the same name: Neria Dov ben Chana, “son of Chana.” Jewish tradition calls a sick person by his mother’s name when praying for healing. The practice goes back to King David, who described himself before God as “Thy servant, the son of Thy handmaid” (Psalms 116:16). A mother’s name awakens compassion in heaven, the way a child calls out for his mother in pain.
In this case, the name carries a second message. Neria’s mother bears the name of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. Hannah stood in the Tabernacle at Shiloh and poured out her heart in silent prayer, “only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard” (1 Samuel 1:13). God answered her with a son. The Sages taught that the laws of prayer itself are learned from Hannah (Berakhot 31a). When Christians in Texas, Florida and Georgia pray for “Neria Dov ben Chana,” they are joining an ancient Jewish custom and invoking the name of the mother of all prayer.
A House of Prayer for All Peoples
The prayers for Neria come as Israel enters Sukkot, the festival the Bible dedicates to the nations. In the days of the Temple, Israel offered seventy bulls over the seven days of the festival, one for each of the seventy nations of the world (Sukkah 55b). For a week each year, the priests of Israel prayed for the welfare of all mankind. This year, as Sukkot begins, the nations are praying for a son of Israel.
The prophet Isaiah foresaw this day. He described the foreigners who join themselves to the God of Israel and promised that their prayers would be heard in Jerusalem:
“Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon Mine altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7).
Neria’s name means “the lamp of God.” King Solomon wrote that “the spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD” (Proverbs 20:27). This week, Jews and Christians around the world are praying together that this lamp will not go out.
The Almond Blossom
God has already sent the family one sign. Forty meters from Neria’s bed, his sister gave birth to a daughter and named her Shaked, “almond.” When God called Jeremiah to prophecy, He showed him an almond branch and explained its meaning:
“And I said: ‘I see a rod of an almond-tree.’ Then said the LORD unto me: ‘Thou hast well seen; for I watch over My word to perform it'” (Jeremiah 1:11–12).
In Hebrew, the almond is shaked, and “I watch” is shoked. The almond is the first tree to blossom after the winter, and God chose it as the sign that He watches over His promises. A new life has blossomed in the hospital where Neria fights for his. Millions of Jews and Christians are praying that the God who watches over His word will watch over Neria Dov ben Chana, and bring him home.
