Not running away from Ra'anana

[Gimel]

Perhaps because Leslye Knox is leaving Ra'anana on Tuesday, she can't stop talking about how beautiful it is. After 23 years in Israel, including 16 years as part of the Hebrew Israelite community of Dimona, the 42-year-old mother of six will return to the United States, leaving behind the place she calls her "sanctuary," the swan-filled lake inside Ra'anana Park. Even more significantly for Knox, she will be leaving all the people who have helped her get through the last two traumatic years.

In mid-January of 2002, she recalls in a calm voice over a cup of tea in the park cafe this week, she was diagnosed with cancer of the cervix, and told she needed a hysterectomy as soon as possible. Knox's voice does not change tone when she reports that three days later, her common-law husband and the father of her sixth child, Aharon Ben Israel Ellis - known as Rony - traveled to Hadera to perform with a Russian band at a bat mitzvah celebration. Ellis, a singer and the first Israeli-born child of the Hebrew Israelite community, was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman, along with five others.

"My stomach dropped," when she was woken at 2 A.M. by her eldest sons to answer a phone call, in which she was informed that Ellis was among those who had been shot. Knox remembers the details of the following hours: going to her neighbors barefoot in her pajamas to listen to the news, the telephone constantly ringing and, finally, the visit close to daybreak from the police, confirming her worst fears.

An interesting read...

[Sugarbleus]

1. Unspeakably sad...thanks for the post. n/t