ORT Israel Student Killed in Terrorist Attack

Tragedy struck the ORT family again on Thursday, July 26, 2001 when Ronen Landau, 17, of Givat Ze'ev, was killed by Palestinian terrorists who shot at the vehicle he was traveling in with his father and brother on the Jerusalem-Givat Ze'ev road.

Landau was a student at ORT Ramot-Alon Comprehensive High School in Jerusalem. He was returning home with his family from Jerusalem when the shooting occurred. Soldiers and police sealed off the area and began searching for the perpetrators.

Close to 10:30 p.m., Magen David Adom received reports of the shooting near Givat Ze'ev and raced to the site where they attempted to resuscitate the boy. He was pronounced dead half an hour later.

As reported in The Jerusalem Post: "Ronen was traveling with his family and not far from Givon shots were fired at the car," said Shaul Mizrahi, head of the Givat Ze'ev Local Council. "Three bullets penetrated the vehicle, and one hit Ronen in the back of the head. Shortly afterward he died of his wounds. His father and brother were not wounded but suffered from shock."

This is the latest in a series of tragedies that have struck the ORT Israel community in the past two months. Two students from ORT Yad Levovitch Comprehensive High School in Netanya, Maria Tagilchev, 14 and Raisa Nemirovsky, 15 were killed on Friday, June 1, 2001 in the Tel-Aviv discotheque bombing. In addition, two other students from ORT schools in Bat Yam were injured in that attack: a boy from ORT Habonim Comprehensive High School and a girl from ORT Ramat Ofer Technological High School.

Two days earlier, on May 30, 2001, a bomb exploded outside the gates of ORT Yad Levovitch High School in Netanya. Had it gone off a few minutes earlier or later, it would have killed or injured many students but miraculously, no one was outside when it detonated. Aware of the increased risks to our students, ORT has begun a campaign to raise funds to provide both additional security measures for our schools as well as counseling for students when the need arises. This campaign will provide security fences, additional guards and six closed circuit cameras for each of ORT Israel's 140 schools.

Another student from ORT Yad Levovitch, 10th grader Alex Briskin, was on his way to his home in Homesh on June 18, 2001, when the car in which he was a passenger was raked by gunfire from a passing vehicle near Nablus. Briskin sustained light to moderate shrapnel wounds.

On Monday, July 16, 2001, a recent ORT Israel graduate, Corporal Hanit Arami was killed by a suicide bomber at the Binyamina Train Station. Corporal Arami was an extremely gifted science student who matriculated at Binyamina's ORT HaShomron High School in June 2000 with top grades. The same bombing also took the life of Sergeant Avi Ben Herush, whose brother is currently studying at ORT HaShomron High School. In addition, the father of another student at ORT HaShomron was seriously injured in that blast. Binyamina is located about midway between Haifa and Netanya in northern Israel.

American ORT and Women's American ORT raise funds to support technical and technological training for more than 300,000 students in 60 countries around the world. ORT is the Jewish world's leader in technology education and the world's largest non-governmental education and training organization.

The largest ORT network of schools is in Israel, where 100,000 students attend 140 junior and senior high schools, colleges, and training programs. One in four members of Israel's workforce was educated in an ORT institution.

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