The sun rose a few hours ago on the 26th of Tammuz, the day on which, 38 years ago, 19 year-old Asher Aharon Gross, a student at the Shavei Hevron Yeshiva, was murdered in Hevron.
Aharon Gross (that's how we knew him then, we did not know his name was Asher Aharon) was my husband's junior learning partner (chavruta tseira) at the nascent Shavei Hevron Yeshiva and during the heavy 3-day snowstorm that year, with its attendant long electricity blackout that left us with a tiny infant and no heat, Aharon trudged down the length of the street leading from Beit Hadassah to our dilapidated mobile home in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood in order to bring us a kerosene stove. I remember how he knocked at the waterlogged door, how he sat and studied Torah with my husband all through the night, guarding the lit stove to be sure no fire broke out in our cramped quarters.
This sensitivity to others' needs, so unusual in a young man of his age, the love of Torah that beat within his soul, the love of Eretz Yisrael and the love of humanity that found expression in so many acts of loving kindness – I remember them all so well.
Aharon Gross Hy"d was murdered by a gang of bestial terrorists who jumped him after he accompanied Rabbi Chaim Getz (may he have long life) to his home at the end of the morning learning session at the yeshiva. They stabbed him multiple times with their knives, leaving him bleeding on the road. Arabs took the wounded Aharon to the Arab al-Ahli hospital in Hevron, where he died, was left to die… from loss of blood!
Aharon Gross Hy"d has been memorialized in several ways, each of them expressing his unique character.
We named our second son for him, Aharon Chai, as did many other parents who loved and admired Aharon, were impressed by his pleasant traits and personality, and painfully mourned his murder.
The Shavei Hevron Yeshiva, where Aharon Hy"d was one of the first students, during the period that the Beit Midrash was still in the airless basement of Beit Romano, memorialized him on the Aron haKodesh (Holy Ark) in today's Beit Midrash and holds an annual memorial for him.
The square where Aharon Hy"d was murdered and where he fell covered in blood, has been known as Gross Square ever since. The words "Gross Square" appear on the destination sign on the front of all the Egged buses that travel to Hevron.
The Jewish community of Hevron, then in its early days, did not lose heart as a result of the murder, instead it flourished and grew. The children growing up there continue to be imbued with the spirit Aharon Hy"d symbolized – love of Torah, love of the land, love of humankind and many deeds of kindness.
May the memory and legacy of Aharon Gross Hy"d be kept in our hearts forever. May his memory serve as a blessing.
Orit Sttukis a member of Knesset for the Religious Zionist party. and served as member of the Knesset for Tkuma (a faction within the Jewish Home party) between 2013 and 2015. Strook is also among the leaders of the Jewish settlement in Hevron, and she established the Israeli NGO Human Rights Organization of Judea and Samaria, which she headed between 2004 and 2012.
Translated by Rochel Sylvetsky, Op-ed and Judaism editor.