Watch: Bereaved Father in Moving Letter to His Son: “You Have Inspired Me”
On Sunday (Sept. 17) the family and friends of Ezra Schwartz, who was killed in a terrorist attack
in Israel 2 years ago, gathered to commemorate his memory by completing
a Rim Run course. Team Ezra have competed a course of 33 km from
the North Rim of Grand Canyon to the bottom and back up to the South rim
(20.6 miles in total). The event was also dedicated to OneFamily, an Israeli NGO which helps victims of terror. Thirteen thousand USD were raised to help bereaved families in Israel.
Ezra Schwartz, 18, of Sharon, Massachusetts was one of
three people killed when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire with a
submachine gun at cars stuck in a traffic jam at the Alon Shvut
junction, just south of Jerusalem. Ezra was a US citizen and a student
in Beit Shemesh. Ezra came to Israel as part of a nine-month volunteer
program. The group of volunteers had traveled to the area in order to
help clean up the Oz Ve’Gaon park, named after the three boys who were
kidnapped and killed a year earlier, in a terror attack after which
Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
After the run was completed, Ari, Ezra’s father read a
letter he wrote to Ezra on the occasion of Ezra’s 20th birthday this
year, a birthday he never lived to celebrate.