“We need a miracle and for everyone to rally together,” said Elkana Ariel, a friend of Neriya Leiter, who is fighting for his life after being critically wounded Wednesday in a terrorist attack on Highway 433.
Ariel, from the community of Havat Yair, told ynet about Neriya: “He is the kind of friend everyone wants. He is all heart, beloved in the community, always walking around with a smile and taking life lightly. Just this past Yom Kippur, he led the Ne’ilah prayer that closes the day.”
Ariel added that the entire family is deeply involved in giving and volunteering.
“Just a month and a half ago, he and his family returned from a trip to the United States, joined by the widow of his older brother Moshe and their children. One of his sisters is married to a career soldier. They all serve in the reserves, and even after his brother fell, they did not stop.
“Neriya is an amazing father who is present in the lives of his family and children and in the community. The situation requires a lot of prayers. We are hoping for the best and calling on all the people of Israel to keep praying,” he said.
Neriya’s father, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, landed in Israel Thursday morning and went to the hospital, where Neriya's mother and other family members were already gathered.
Yechiel Leiter arrives at Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem
(Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)
“They grew up in the same room. They were best friends. Neriya has led the family since Moshe’s death,” his father said.
Neria’s mother, Chana, also spoke Thursday morning in an interview with Army Radio.
“After Moshe fell, Neriya wanted so much to gather all of us together, and he helped all of us. He held our hand. He was amazing. He had a good relationship with almost all of us. Whoever needed help — he was there,” she said.
After his brother’s death, Neriya moved to a rear-echelon role in an elite unit. In a post on social media, he described the tension between the price his family had already paid and the fact that the fighting was continuing and he still wanted to feel part of it.
Neriya understood the high cost, but after several months, he returned to combat reserve duty. At the time he was wounded Wednesday, he was attached to a battalion carrying out reserve service in Judea and Samaria.
Neriya underwent complex brain surgery Wednesday night that lasted for hours.
Professor Alexander Yoskovich of Shaare Zedek Medical Center gave an update Thursday morning on his condition.
“After a series of tests and a series of surgeries, we can say that his condition is stable. His condition is still serious and his life remains in danger, but we are full of hope,” he said.
Video of the attack
Neriya Leiter was wounded in the attack at the Bell checkpoint, an IDF inspection point on Highway 443. A terrorist drove his vehicle toward a police car and struck him. The attacker, 29, was killed by forces at the scene.
Yechiel Leiter was born in Pennsylvania in the United States and immigrated to Israel after being deeply influenced by Zionist values. He was named after Rabbi Yechiel Michel Leiter, his great-great-grandfather, a prominent European rabbi and halachic authority who later immigrated to the United States and served as a community rabbi, where he wrote the responsa work “Darkei Shalom.”
Yechiel’s grandfather, Moshe, was a well-known Torah scholar. Beyond his extensive religious learning, he was also known as a public activist. He published articles in the Orthodox Jewish press and founded a refugee association and a Talmud study organization in Zurich.
Because he felt the positions of Agudat Yisrael were not sufficiently enthusiastic about immigration to the Land of Israel and Zionism, he left the movement and remained active in Mizrachi.
He later immigrated to the United States, where his father served as a community rabbi and where he also held a rabbinic position.
In 1925, he immigrated to the Land of Israel but returned to Vienna after several months. He lived in Vienna until 1938, when he fled the threat of the Holocaust and moved to the United States. He was appointed rabbi of the Ahavat Re’im synagogue.
The father of Rabbi Yechiel Michel, Rabbi Shalom Leiter, was himself a rabbinical judge and halachic authority. His children, in addition to Rabbi Yechiel, also served as rabbis, heads of rabbinical courts, city rabbis and public activists.