Rabbi Hillel Lieberman - Oct 8, 2000

The bullet-riddled body of Hillel Lieberman, 36, of Elon Moreh was found at the southern entrance to Nablus.

Early Sunday evening on October 8, Israeli security forces discovered the bullet-ridden body of Hillel Lieberman, who was last seen that Saturday morning heading for Joseph's Tomb, after hearing that Palestinians were desecrating the site.

An IDF statement said, "Lieberman was murdered in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists as he made his way to Nablus. The IDF holds the PA directly responsible and expects the Palestinian Authority to put an immediate end to all the violence."

An Elon Moreh resident and US citizen, Hillel Lieberman was "a rabbi and a teacher, a scholar, and very emotionally attached to Joseph's Tomb," said Yehudit Tayar, spokeswoman for the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip. "Whenever he spoke about it his face was radiant," she said.

Lieberman left the synagogue on foot for Joseph's Tomb in nearby Nablus after hearing that Palestinians had destroyed the shrine shortly after Israeli troops left the site. "He was unarmed, wearing a tallit, and he was brutally murdered by our enemies who want to erase our existence," added Tayar.

Lieberman, father of seven, was one of the founders and administrators of the "Od Yosef Chai" Yeshiva at Joseph's Tomb, and gave daily Torah lessons to the students at the shrine.

Lieberman's parents arrived from the US for his burial; his father is Rabbi Sidney Zvulun Lieberman of Brooklyn, New York. Thousands attended the funeral on a hilltop at Yitzhar. In accordance with his wishes, his grave was next to those of Shlomo Liebman and Harel Bin-Nun, who were murdered by terrorists in 1998.