Mourners pray for peace at bus victim’s funeral
Hundreds turn out who never knew Alon Govberg, 51
“For the sake of my kin and friends, I pray for your well being,” sang hundreds of men and women attending the funeral on Wednesday for Alon Govberg, 51, one of three people killed in a gun and knife assault on an Egged bus in Armon Hanatziv.
Many of those present had never met Govberg, a Russian immigrant who lived on his own in the capital, his elderly mother the only close relative on hand to attend the burial.
Govberg’s mother wept aloud bitterly at the burial for her son draped in a prayer shawl, as many mourners uttered prayers from the Book of Psalms.
Govberg was one of three Israelis killed in terrorist attacks perpetrated in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“We are here next to this martyr, who was killed by evil people as he was traveling on a bus in Jerusalem in the middle of the day, killed for no reason,” Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Arye Stern said in eulogy.
“‘Earth, do not cover his blood,’” cited the rabbi from Jewish liturgy. “We cannot accept or reconcile ourselves to people coming and killing good, innocent people in this random way. Innocent is not even the word here, people are being murdered simply because they are Jews,” Stern said.
“Alon, our beloved,” the rabbi went on. “You have merited an escort by a great congregation of people, which shows the connection of the Jewish people to each other, a feeling of partnership which we should strive to develop in our every days lives and not just times such as this.”
Mourners answering an appeal from the ZAKA search and recovery organization for as many people as possible to attend the burial, came from many walks of Israeli life. Among the crowd were immigrants and native-born Israelis, secular, national-religious, and haredi, young and old alike.
Many recited prayers with deep emotion, including such Psalms as “Acheinu kol Beit Yisrael,” (our brothers, the whole house of Israel), urging peace for Jerusalem and its inhabitants.
They also prayed for the city of Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish people.
“He was a resident of Jerusalem, one of us, a Jew,” said one of those in attendance, Simeon, 44.
“That these hundreds of people came to his funeral shows us that we united as a people, and shows to the entire world that they will not break us. I wanted to identify with this, and so I came,” Simeon said.
Ilanit, 43, left work early to attend the funeral, and met up there with her daughter Yahalom,18. The women said they felt a responsibility to be there after hearing he had no other family to attend the funeral.
“The Jewish people is one big family, and we came to escort him,” Ilanit said.
Mourners also felt the kinship of facing the same threat, of being vulnerable to the same wave of attacks that felled Govberg.
“There is a pain for every one of us in the nation, also for those who have not come here, and we are identifying with that which we are experiencing here. With the suspicion, with the fear. And this, what’s happening, is unthinkable. This is not how a normal war is fought in any other part of the world.
“And it could happen to anyone of us, and so we came,” Ilanit said.
Govberg was killed because he was a Jew, said Yisrael Ze’ev, 65.
“It could have been any Jew [that was killed], he was killed because he was a Jew, so that’s me, that’s all of us, it touches a raw nerve and thats why we’re here.”