Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Leo Dee recites Yizkor prayer during Independence Day ceremony

Rabbi Dee’s wife, Lucy, and daughters Maia and Rina were killed earlier this month by Palestinian terrorists.

Rabbi Leo Dee
Rabbi Leo Dee rehearses for Israel’s Independence Day ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, April 23, 2023. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife, Lucy, and daughters Maia and Rina were killed earlier this month in a Palestinian terrorist attack, recited the Yizkor memorial prayer at Israel’s main ceremony on Tuesday night marking the state’s 75th Independence Day.

Lucy Dee, 48, Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were murdered in an April 7 shooting on the Route 57 highway near the Hamra Junction in the Jordan Valley.

In a video message shortly thereafter, Leo Dee called for the observance of April 10 as “Dees Day” and urged supporters to post photos of themselves with the Israeli flag to social media.

“Today, we differentiate between good and evil, right and wrong,” he said. “The Israeli flag is the sign of good. It’s the side of building something worthy. Do it for your soul. Do it for the souls of Maia, Rina and Lucy Dee.

“Do it for all of humanity and do it now,” he added. “It has never been more urgent.”

The Israel Defense Forces was continuing on Tuesday to search for the terrorists who killed the Dees.

The annual torch-lighting ceremony for Independence Day began just after sundown Tuesday on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

The five-day initiative aims to promote Israeli higher education as an attractive alternative for Jewish students facing rising antisemitism on Western campuses.
A senior Hamas commander targeted in Thursday’s airstrike was responsible for holding several Israeli hostages, including soldiers and civilians, the army said.
The tremor, centered near Taba in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, prompted evacuations and Home Front Command alerts across southern Israel.
“The Constitution is clear that the states do not have to subsidize antisemitic speech on their college campuses,” the Kentucky attorney general said.