‘Victory over Jew-haters’: Terrorist victim’s mother gives birth to baby girl

The granddaughter born in February was already named for the teen killed by a terrorist bomb last year.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The mother of murdered teen Rina Shnerb gave birth Tuesday, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, to a baby girl in what the family is calling a “huge victory” over Jew-haters.

In a joyous message to their Lod community regarding the arrival of their 12th child, Rabbi Eitan and Shira Shnerb wrote, “Neither the Nazis nor the accursed terrorists will defeat us. We will continue to live with great faith and bring new life to the world.”

The rabbi said that they had learned of the pregnancy during their week of mourning for older daughter Rina, who was killed on a hike on August 23, 2019 by a bomb planted by Palestinian terrorists near the Ein Dani spring. Her brother and father, who were a few steps behind Rina when the device exploded, were also injured in the attack.

The news “helped us heal,” Rabbi Shnerb told Army Radio.

He said that the birthing staff asked if they would name the infant after their daughter, and they had responded, “Of course not. What, that we should have two daughters called Rina? Although she has physically left us, we still have the feeling that she is with us. If someone has an idea for a name, we’ll be happy [to hear it].”

It is an Ashkenazic Jewish custom to name children after deceased relatives, both to perpetuate the name and in the hope that the infant will inherit the relative’s special qualities. The Shnerbs already have a new Rina in the family, as a granddaughter born in February was named Emuna Rina.

Emunah means “faith” in Hebrew, and the family said at the time that the name expressed “our great faith and of our families in the Creator, both during difficult situations and crises and during the many joyous occasions…. Rina was full of faith, joy, love, doing for others, and prayer. And we pray that with God’s help, Emuna Rina will learn from Rina’s qualities, which were so very special.”

The terrorist cell that planted the bomb that killed Rina was caught shortly after the attack. The homes of two of them were demolished in early March, while the High Court of Justice ruled that only the top floor of a third terrorist’s house could be destroyed by the IDF.