Jewish teenager stabbed to death by terrorists in Gush Etzion

On Wednesday night, the 19-year-old son of one of our suppliers was murdered in cold blood by terrorists as he returned to his yeshiva in the Gush Etzion region.

Dvir Sorek—son of Rachel Sorek, one of our artisan jewelry makers—had been in Jerusalem the day he was killed. Always kind-hearted and quick to serve others, he had volunteered to buy books for his yeshiva rabbis on behalf of his classmates as an end-of-year gift.

Dvir never got to give his gift or see the smiles on his rabbis’ faces. On his way back from Jerusalem, before he reached the yeshiva, he became the latest victim of an evil, senseless terror attack. His body was found by the side of the road in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Dvir’s father—Yoav Sorek, a well-known Israeli journalist and author—described his son as “a sweet child who had light in his eyes.”To compound the family’s tragedy, Dvir’s grandfather—Holocaust survivor Rabbi Binyamin Herling—was also killed in a terror attack in October 2000.

The horrific act of violence that saw an innocent young man killed for no other reason than that he was Jewish shows the dark reality faced by our producers every day.

Yet there is something extraordinary in the Jewish soul that always seeks life, even in the face of death. That is why our producers continue designing and creating their beautiful items and why the modern-day Jewish pioneers continue to raise up and develop the land, not letting this terrible evil stop them.

Please remember the Sorek family and their community in your prayers.