Hayim Katsman came to Seattle to do PhD studies at the University of Washington. His friend, Yoav Duman, introduced him to me. Hayim asked me to speak to one of his university classes and I did. As always, I was grateful for the opportunity to speak to university students.
Hayim returned to Israel after earning his degree. He lived in Kibbutz Holit in southern Israel, and was an adjunct at Ben Gurion University and Hadassah College. Yoav tells me he was also a full-time car mechanic at the kibbutz, and that he DJed contemporary Arab music. He was an extraordinary man. He was “wise beyond his years,” Yoav said. So true.
Yesterday, Palestinians assaulted his kibbutz and he was murdered in his home. His teachers, colleagues, friends and family are devastated. A light has been snuffed out. Hayim, like every murdered soul–Palestinian and Israeli–amidst this madness, had a great contribution to make to this world. His death, as with the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is senseless.
Jews traditionally say, on learning of a death: baruch dayan emet (“blessed is the true judge”). But in the cases of these murders on both sides, I cannot say this. Rather, I prefer the saying of the heretical Talmudic rabbi, Elisha Ben Abuya: leyt din v’leyt dayan (“there is no justice and there is no judge”). No human can make sense of this. Nor can anyone believe God wants this carnage, or that there is a reason S/He knows alone.
The only appropriate thing is to say: y’hi zichro baruch (“may his memory be blessed”). I am sure Hayim’s colleagues will commemorate him in ways he would have appreciated.
Hayim’s death does not merit feelings of vengeance, as much of Israel feels in the wake of 700 of their fellow citizens killed. He would not have wanted that. He would want to try to find a decent, humane way forward (if that is possible). Indeed, it must be possible.
The rabbis deliberated about the Roman circuses in which the fates of gladiators were determined by the approval of the crowd. Some said that no Jew should step foot in such a heathen place. But others said that they should do so in order to make their voice heard on behalf of life and mercy: “in a place where there is no humanity, strive to be human.”
The Middle East is a place that knows no humanity. But we are duty bound to vote for life and mercy. We must honor the memory of the victims, all of them. Even if everything around us cries for vengeance. We must be a witness to human decency despite the madness.
Solely targeting civilians is always inhumane and a war crime and must not ever be condoned. Violence begets violence … a lesson mankind unwilling to understand. In this war both Hamas and Israel are perpetrators … US Deputy Ambassador Wood at the Security Council saw, listened and gave a green light to Israel’s wrath for major bomb attacks on Gaza concentration camp. Shameful. The EU members too are indifferent to the fate of Palestinians. I have no tears left. 🙏🏽
I am so sorry for your personal loss, condolences are in order to family, Israel and the world; a shining person lost. Thank you for this tribute and remembrance; Hayim Katzman was apparently a special person.
Yes particularly to your last three paragraphs. But the vengeance is coming and more innocents are going to be killed. And this we are helping. It really pains me. Ukraine is very different. Here we are going to help by sending offensive weapons, more ammo, more bombs etc. to “put and end to Hamas”, not and end to the situation that brought this, but digging it deeper. I can’t help thinking we will send the very weapons in supposed short supply that we should send to Ukraine so that Netanyahu can have his vengeance disproportionality in Gaza. Netanyahu says it will take time. Once again Israel has to show it’s military superiority over this situation ( with our help!) claiming how existential it is for Israel.
The lesson I hear and read is all about lack of intelligence, preparedness, the failure to keep the heavy weight on the Palestinians daily: the necessity to go on with “the situation” under control, well mowed. The lesson will not be about settling the conflict equitably, but about Israel having to prevail militarily while keeping up the story we repeat about “the two state solution” and “they are terrorists that want to destroy Israel”.
The recent Israeli right wing government headed by Netanyahu is to blame: Netanyahu’s self serving path, Can one man be blamed? Or is it the majority that keeps voting for him? He put the old negotiating table in deep storage long ago, blaming the other side. The peacemakers are dead or have been silenced. Hate speech propaganda and walls that keep “the situation” at a distance and then the headiness and chutzpah of the extremists now in government going ahead with the taking, river to sea, stomping on human beings in the way.
Sorry to go on… but Israel destroys itself.
Not just Netanyahu but most politicians across Europe and Western alliance for many decades.
European capitals are flying the Israeli flag 🇮🇱 in the top.
Just a single voice of protest from Dublin, Ireland.
I am so sorry. Richard. We are all losing people we love in this horror that’s happening right now. Bullets don’t know the difference between civilians and combatants. My heart is shredded. Greta
We will be helping Israel commit war crimes in retaliation.
I forgot which Egyptian king pointed out something to the effect – you never fight Israel, you fight the U.S.
The U.S. has sent how many billions of dollars of the most advanced weapons – annually – to Israel, now the frustration level in Hamas has exploded, Biden is investing how many more billions of dollars of the most advanced methods of murder and destruction…
Any opposition voices in congress?
Israel is riding the back of the tiger, and will end up inside.
Sorry Richard, I’m sure you wont approve of this post but as a Brit, I have to say:
Tzipi Hotovely (Israeli ambassador to Britain), what a c–nt she is! And this has nothing to do with her gender. We are seeing tribalism at its worst in this British educated advocate for Jewish supremacy over Palestine. The chickens are coming home to roost, Tzipi and you just don’t see it. I am sickened by the number of Brits (and Americans) who have gone to Israel to impose their fascist tendencies under the guise of a mythical Jewish prorogative to own the land. Seek help Tzipi, you are clearly not well.
“We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country.” She added: “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that.” Tzipi Hotovely.
She is clearly living in an alternative reality. This is a text book example of Anti-Social Personality disorder.
In my disgust for this woman I am fighting back the inclination to fat-shame her. Her disgraceful personality has nothing to do with her weight. (Although she’s still a slob, lol).
All of a sudden, Richard is aggrieved over the loss of his Israeli friend, slaughtered by Hamas, whose bloodlust and sadism is identical to ISIS. Richard hasn’t seen or heard the videos that are currently circulating in Israel and which have not been picked up by the Western media. The videos are utterly sickening in their sadism and bloodlust.
Children, little more than toddlers, taunted and beaten. Israeli captive teens brutalized by Hamas for selfies. Addled grandmothers pushed around in wheelchairs like captured trophies. Children saying their last words to their parents over the phone before they’re executed, etc.
But to get back to Hayim Katsman z”l, Richard has repeatedly said that all Israelis are legitimate targets for Hamas. So what does that means in terms of Hayim? That his sadistic murder was a legitimate act of resistance, and not an act of terrorism
Now consider that Hayim was just one of a thousand innocent civilians and POWs that Hamas has slaughtered with glee in their 24 hour genocidal spasm.
@ Q: First, let’s get something straight. I don’t give a good goddamn what you think on any subject. But especially on one has profound as the death of a friend. You, frankly, are despicabale for using this as a cudgel to promote your hateful views.
No, a far more apt comparison would be Israel, whose bloodlust and sadism is quite well known. BTW, ISIS doesn’t exist (except in small pockets of Iraq and Afghanistan) so I’d put that dead horse to rest if I were you.
I have plenty of videos of Israeli mass murder that are “utterly sickening in their sadism and bloodlust.” Any bit of terror porn you can whip out I can do you one better. BTW, you ought to take a refresher course in Hasbara discourse. Reusing words like “bloodlust” loses your audience. Reptition breeds contempt.
I won’t bore readers here with a repeated response that however many Israelis died there have been and will be many times more Palestinians murdered by Israel. And when have you expressed an iota of sincere remorse for a single one of them? That makes you an amoral hypocrite. Your pain is better than their pain. Your blood is redder than theirs.
Were Hayim alive he would acknowledge that he made choices in his life. We all make them. Some choices are good. Some are unfortunate. But one thing I can tell you which refutes your disgusting arguments absolutely. For every Israeli Hayim there are 20 Palestinian ones. Hayim’s life was beautiful. But so were the lives of the Palestinians who died and will do. You only have a right to your argument if you acknowleged this.Since you don’t and won’t you have no right to invoke Hayim. He is a hasbara tool for you and I will not let you soil his memory for such despicable purposes.
I found your comment odious and only published it because someone responded to you. You are now blocked.
Q … may I assume you are a local … fan of Bibi, perhaps Ben Gvir … Richard is a gift to this bloodthirsty world. 🙏🏽
Silent lurker here. Just wanted to say you are right – although I do not know Hayim personally, from what I’ve researched so far he was a gentle, kind, peace-loving scholarly person who did not deserve this end and who even in his last moments, managed to protect a female neighbor. Y’hi zichro baruch.
Therefore it sickens me when I read those nasty comments by small minds (you know the types) in some online news portal where they rejoice over his death for being a ‘brown lover’ and virtue signaler and other shit. How sick must those people be to do such a horrid thing???!! We live in an evil, broken world and should mourn each time a brilliant spark such as his gets snuffed out way before his time.
ps: Thanks for mentioning Rabbi Elisha Ben Abuya. I thought he sounded familiar and now I realise he’s the one of the 4 who entered Pardes.
@LK: The death threat I received, which is in one of my recent posts, shows a picture of an Israeli woman who was a peace activist and murdered. I cropped it out because there was no reason to drag her into my death threat. The commentary heaps abuse on her for being a dupe,etc. Precisely the same rhetoric you noted. As you say, every life in cherished though many have been cruelly snuffed out. Despising your own fellow Jew and heaping abuse on them on their death is a chilul ha’shem.
A tribute to a fine human being …
He was a peace activist with a PhD. In dying, Hayim Katsman saved 3 other lives | The Forward |
Chilling Account from Be’eri Kibbutz
This 19 year old girl survived the horrific massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri.
This is her message to her fellow Israelis and to the world.