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Boulderite loses her brother in Har Nof attack

Rabbi Kalman Zev LevineJonathan Bein of Boulder was reading the Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post online Monday night when he found out about a massacre at a Har Nof synagogue.

He called his sister-in-law Chaya Levine in Har Nof for news, even though no names had been mentioned.

For a brief, blessed moment, Chaya knew nothing — until she knew too much,

Rabbi Kalman Zev Levine, her husband and father of their nine children, was slaughtered at Har Nof’s Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov.

Shelley Bein, Jonathan’s wife, is Kalman Levine’s sister.

The world is so much smaller than we imagine.

“Shelley’s here,” Bein tells the Intermountain Jewish News, his voice exhausted by emotion. “But she can’t talk to anyone. She’s a mess.”

Kalman Levine, 55, did not attend the Har Nof shul.

“This was not his usual routine,” Bein says.

“Normally he prays at sunrise at another shul, but he stopped by Kehillat Bnei Yaakov to ask one of the rabbis a halachic question for a friend.

“My brother-in-law was in the wrong place at the wrong time to help someone else.”

Rabbi Levine was born in Kansas City and graduated high school at 16. He made aliyah in his late teens.

“He rarely left the land of Israel,” Bein says.

Committed to Torah study, he slept only four hours a night.

“My brother-in-law made impeccable use of his time on this planet — learning, teaching, praying, doing acts of kindness and devoting himself to his family (including five grandchildren).”

Shelley Bein, who is planning to travel to Kansas City to be with her parents, had purchased a ticket for next week to celebrate the birth of her latest grandchild.

“At Kalman’s funeral, my sister-in-law Chaya saw Shelley’s son and daughter-in-law,” Bein says.

“Chaya had the strength of spirit to say  ‘Mazel tov’ on the birth of their new child.”

Shelley’s sister Stephanie resides in San Diego.

Jonathan refuses to indulge in details of the massacre that claimed the lives of three other rabbis and a Druze policeman who tried to save them.

“I don’t want to know more than I have to,” he says.  “Gruesome details would traumatize the family.”

But he does not hesitate to discuss motives behind the act that struck down his brother-in-law Tuesday.

“It was evil incarnate,”he says. “This is what happens when people begin to view other people as less than human,” he says.

“I compare the techniques used in Palestinian propaganda throughout the years to Nazi Germany.

“No human being could do this to another human being.”

Asked about his brother-in-law’s legacy, Bein rises from sorrowful waters.

“Kalman was a very gentle, kind man — completely without malice — who was devoted to his family and faith. His candle burned bright. The candle was short, but it burned so brightly while he was with us.

“If you think of the time he spent awake instead of sleeping, it was as if he lived the life of a 75-year-old man,” he says.

“He was absolutely joyous.”

Andrea Jacobs may be reached via [email protected].

Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News



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IJN Senior Writer | [email protected]


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