In the hours after the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival in Kibbutz Re’im, West Hempstead resident Moshe Nisenboym learned that his niece Zhenya Nisenboym, 32, and nephew Ilan Moshe Akov, 29, had disappeared after thousands of Hamas terrorists blew in a gap in the border fence separating the Gaza Strip from southern Israel. As concertgoers ran for their lives, hundreds of them were gunned down or kidnapped.
“They were captured, and we do not know where they are,” Nisenboym texted, after hearing of the biggest attack on Israel in a half century. At the time, there was hope that they would be among the captured, but in contrast to previous kidnappings of Jews by Hamas, there were no ransom videos and retaliation came swiftly. Israel responded to the invasion and accompanying rockets by reclaiming the southern towns and kibbutzim, mobilizing more than 300,000 reservists, and bombing Hamas positions in Gaza.
This past Friday, he was informed that his relatives were gunned down as they tried to flee the massacre. “I did not tell my father at first, but now he knows and he wants to fly to Israel to mourn with the family, but he recently had surgery.” The Nisenboym family of Israel made aliyah from Uzbekistan to Bat Yam more than 20 years ago and kept ties with their American relatives who live in Queens and West Hempstead.
“There are no words. I never had a chance to meet them,” said Nisenboym’s cousin David Aronov of Forest Hills. A political activist who serves as a special advisor at the UJA-Federation of New York, he coordinates the organization’s outreach among Bukharian Jews. “It doesn’t change what I do,” he said of the terrorist attack. “We have an Israel emergency fund that has raised more than $20 million around the clock.”
Alongside funding, the UJA-Federation liaised with the Israeli government to make sure that supplies donated by New Yorkers are appropriate for its needs. “There is not enough manpower to scan the supplies, resulting in a delay in distribution. Someone donated black vests, but Israel couldn’t use them because Hamas wears black vests. Israel uses green vests. It is important to listen to the people on the ground.”
Last Motza’ei Shabbos, Aronov attended a prayer gathering at the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Forest Hills, where he met with neighbors who had their own relatives among the dead, missing, and serving in the IDF.
Among the heroes is Senior Sergeant Yoav Mallaev, who was killed when his base in Zikim was attacked. Taking command, he split up his unit and ran to confront the terrorists, killing four of them as he was taking enemy fire. With his body, Mallaev saved the lives of his comrades.
“Your son is a true hero, and it is in your merit,” his American relatives wrote in a letter to his parents Maya and Alex. “He glorified the Israeli army with his courage, his strong military spirit.”
Other members of the Bukharian community in Israel who were among the murdered include Sgt. Max Rubinov, Lt. Col. Alex Pozdnyakov, Roni Polvanov, Adam Ilyaev, Roza Yadgarov, Yuriy Yadgarov, and Aharon Khaimov, in a list released last week by the Congress of Bukharian Jews of the USA and Canada. All of them have relatives in New York who are among the mourners of Israel.
Bayside resident Tammy Osherov’s nephew Sefi Genis was also among the missing, reported in the aftermath of the music festival massacre. “He was just married. He was young and went to the music festival to have fun,” Osherov said. He was missing for four days before his name appeared among the dead. “He was from Tel Aviv, a promising software developer,” Osherov said.
Online, Genis’ social media, LinkedIn, and the site of the Firefly cloud asset management platform that he co-founded, speak of a young man who exemplified Israel as the tech start-up nation that connects with clients and corporations around the world.
“I was first cousins with Sefi’s father, and my father fought in the Israeli War of Independence,” Osherov said. A longtime activist in the Queens Democratic Party, she expressed gratitude that its leading local officials have expressed unequivocal support for Israel, with rally speeches by County Party Chair Rep. Greg Meeks, Rep. Grace Meng, who represents Osherov’s neighborhood, and Borough President Donovan Richards, among others.
“I am very pleased with the local party response, the vigils, and that they stand solidly with Israel.”
By Sergey Kadinsky
