Mordechai Reinitz

Aug 19, 2003 - Mordechai Reinitz, 49, of Netanya was one of 23 persons murdered by a suicide bomber on a No. 2 Egged bus in the capital's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood.

The attack took place at about 9 p.m. as the bus was making its way from the Western Wall to several religious neighborhoods. The Hamas suicide bomber, apparently disguised as a religious Jew, boarded the bus and detonated his bomb shortly afterwards. Seven of those killed were children and over 130 people were wounded.

Mordechai Shalom Reinitz was on the first day of vacation in Jerusalem with his family and had taken two of his sons, Mendy, 11, and Issachar, nine, to visit the Western Wall. They were on their way back to their hotel when the terrorist struck. Mordechai and Issachar were killed outright; Mendy was seriously wounded.

Reinitz was the spiritual leader of the Darkei Avot religious elementary school for boys in Kiryat Sanz, responsible for some 600 pupils aged three to 14.

"Shalom grew up in the neighborhood from childhood," related a spokesman of the Belz Hassidim. "At the age of 14 he received certification as a scholar from the former admor [religious leader] after learning 300 pages of Talmud by heart. He was a superior educator and began running the school five years ago."

His friends described Reinitz as a levelheaded, modest person, known for his editing of the works of the admor and getting them published. On the fatal ride from the Western Wall he held a phone conversation with one of his assistants about an upcoming trip with his pupils.

Mordechai Reinitz was buried in Netanya. He is survived by his wife and 11 children.