Terror Orphan Marries Step Brother
In 2002, Boaz Szabo’s wife and 3 children were murdered by an Arab terrorist. 5 years later Szabo remarried. And this week, his daughter, Aviya, married her step-brother, David. At their wedding, David told a reporter from Channel 2, “Suddenly, from this whole bad story at least one good thing has come about. And that’s the most important thing.”
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Translation of article by Yael Odam
In 2002, Boaz Szabo lost his wife and three of his children who were murdered by a terrorist who infiltrated their home in Itamar. Five years later, he started a new chapter of his life and remarried. Under one roof lived Boaz’s children and the children of his new wife, Hila. Yesterday, two of them– the daughter of Boaz and the son of Hila, married.
Boaz (holding two of his triplets at wedding): Tell them who is getting married.
Triplet: Our siblings!
Reporter: David and Aviya, the siblings of Hallel, Yael and Hod got married yesterday. It was an exceptional wedding. To understand why this wedding is so unusual, we need to return to one night in 2002 when a terrorist infiltrated the Szabo home in Itamar. The mother Rachel and three of her chidren, Tzvika, Neriya, and Avishai were murdered. Aviya and Asahel were seriously injured. Two other siblings were not at home at the time.
Five years after the disaster, Boaz Szabo decided to rebuild his life and married Hila, a mother of five. Together they brought triplets into the world. In the meantime, in this home of 12 children the love story between David and Aviya was being woven. David is the son of Hila and Aviya is the daughter of Boaz. Both parents accompanied both the groom and the bride to the chuppah.
Reporter: So, are you two more siblings or more a couple?
David: A couple. That’s it, no more siblings.
Reporter: Not siblings?
David: What’s siblings? Siblings was, you know, a kind of…everybody called it “siblings.”
Boaz: “We’re getting married…” It was a kind of “boom!” wasn’t it, Hila?
Hila: Maybe for the first few seconds it was like, you know…. Until we digested it, and then it was OK.
Boaz: Suddenly, from this whole bad story at least one good thing has come about. And that’s the most important thing.
Reporter: The young couple’s wedding ceremony was conducted together by Rabbi Lau and Rabbi Rontsky. Each of them were with the family in harder days.
Rabbi Lau: We met at Tel HaShomer Hospital. When Asael lay there wounded.
Rabbi Rontsky: I remember Rachel and the children, they were our neighbors. I remember the home burning with fire. Not simple.
Reporter: Even at moments like this, it’s hard to forget.
Boaz: I was at the cemetery, to invite Rachel and the children.That is a tradition. They say there is no joy without sadness.
Reporter: Light returns to the new, expanded Szabo family. Among the circles of dancing yesterday it was possible to feel great happiness in every meaning of the word.
So there was more than one terrorist attack on a family in itamar?