Teaching Team
Israeli Messianic Victim of Terror
Tags: Ami Oritz, blast, bomb, messianic, Purim
At 2:30 PM on Thursday March 20th, during the Fast of Esther and just hours before the festival of Purim began, 15 year old Ami Oritz picked up a Purim basket someone had left outside of his family's apartment in Ariel, Israel. The basket contained two pipe bombs packed with screws and bolts. The bombs detonated in his hands, sending shrapnel through his body. The blast was so strong that, according to some witnesses, it knocked out the windows of a car parked on the street below the apartment.
Terrorist incidents like this are, unfortunately, routine in today's world. They are not unusual in Israel where violence between Israelis and Palestinian terrorists is in the newspapers on a daily basis. But this particular incident strikes close to home for Messianic Jews and practitioners of Messianic Judaism. The Oritz family is a well-known Messianic family in Israel.
Ami is the captain of his high school basketball team. Four of Ami's siblings have served in the IDF and their father David has completed 15 years service in the defense of Israel.
Initially Ami was not expected to survive. Thankfully, HaShem has intervened and Ami's condition has stabilized. The doctor, a specialist in trauma who has treated several terrorist bombing victims, told Ami's father that a miracle has happened. He said he had never seen that kind of recovery. Nevertheless, Ami is badly hurt. He had a large piece of shrapnel in his left eye. He has lost hearing in one ear. Miraculously he sustained no brain damage. His neck is punctured and cut, but amazingly without arterial or spinal damage. His lungs are riddled with shrapnel and his breathing is labored. Several internal organs are damaged, but with God's help, none were destroyed. One leg, badly lacerated, may need to be amputated. He has 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his body, and in some places, his skin is gone.
Since the incident, Ami has regained consciousness, but is struggling with panic attacks and psychological trauma.
No one knows who is responsible for the bombing. Unfortunately, because the Oritz family is Messianic, the possibility exists that they were specifically targeted. If the act was not random, (and it is unlikely that it was) the Oritz family might have been targeted by Muslim terrorists who resent the evangelistic work of Messianic Jews among Israeli Arabs, or it may have even been Jewish radicals (God forbid) waging a private war against believers in Yeshua. Messianic communities have been targeted in the past by anti-missionary zealots. The Messianic Jewish community in Israel has endured threats, abuse and sometimes even fire bombing of places of assembly.
The Ariel police force took up a collection for the Oritz family this week. Perhaps God may be using this horrible incident to make Israeli Jews rethink their attitude toward Messianic Israelis.
Please pray for a speedy and complete healing, a healing of the body and a healing of the soul for Ami ben Leah, a member of Israel. Pray also for the Oritz family, that God would provide them with comfort and grace. Pray for the Israeli Messianic community, for their protection, their prosperity and that they would grow in the love of Yeshua and the ways of Torah.
D. Thomas Lancaster
26 Adar II, 5768
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Visitor Feedback:
We have been praying for this boy and his family. What a terrible thing. I am also very disturbed by the report by the Israeli media that this would be Orthodox Jews who committed this crime. Since when do Jews make terrorist bombs with nails and bolts in them? This family has had death threats from Muslims and I see no reason to even hint at this being a Jewish thing. Judaism forbids such things. No real orthodox Jew would do this.
Andrew
DTL REPLIES: Shalom Andrew. Unfortunately, it is a possibility. Just as we should not confuse Christians and Christianity, we should not confuse Jews with Judaism. Not all Christians act Christian, and not all Orthodox Jews follow the standards of Orthodox Judaism. According to one media report I read, the original allegation that the explosive might have been planted by anti-missionaries came from someone within the Oritz family. It should not be assumed, but neither can it be ruled out just yet.
Andrew | April 3, 2008 1:46 PM
Go to hayovel.com for accurate information on this situation. This is the website of some close friends of the Ortiz family.
Maria | April 3, 2008 5:53 PM
taken from the hayovel.com site...
If you would like to mail Ami a post card please send it to:
Ami Ortiz
P.O. Box 1903
Ariel, 40700 Israel
aree | April 4, 2008 9:45 AM
Please note that Ami's family is accepting postcards and nothing else. Please do not send mail in envelopes or packages or anything like that. Refer to the above mentioned website for exact details.
Maria | April 4, 2008 10:40 AM
It hurts me deep when reading this piece of news, more than the 8 yeshivat students who were killed mercilessly in Jerusalem. I have been praying for them ever since and now I will even be more diligent than ever before praying for Ami's recovery for he's our Master's precious and beloved. I know he will be healed and will be fully recovered through our Master healing touch because I trust Him. I will also continuously pray for the Messianic Jewish communities in the Land of Israel. May HaShem stretch out His mighty arm again to save His precious ones in the beautiful Land in this coming awesome Feast Day of the LORD.
Baruch HaShem, baruch Yeshua!
Thomas
Thomas Ho | April 5, 2008 8:21 AM