...though they were innocent.

I'm taking the liberty of posting this whole article because it will turn into a pumpkin in two weeks, and this needs remembering. May the guardians of copyright forgive me my trespasses.

Mary Anne

from the Harrisburg, PA, Patriot-News

"Grieving parents recall Blutstein's energy, fun, lack of fear

Friday, August 02, 2002

BY MARY KLAUS
Of The Patriot-News

Benjamin Blutstein knew that some people considered his studies at Hebrew University "kind of crazy" because Israel is "a dangerous part of the world," he wrote to his family last Thanksgiving.

But the 25-year-old Susquehanna Twp. man, killed Wednesday when a bomb exploded in the university cafeteria, also wrote that "I feel that I'm doing something very important. I am growing and changing. I don't know where this learning is taking me, but I think it's where I should be going."

His father, Dr. Richard Blutstein, said he will hold onto those words today when he buries his only son in Kesher Israel Cemetery, Susquehanna Twp.

"Ben never expressed any fear about being in Israel," Blutstein said. "He was on a journey and would go where that journey took him."

Benjamin Blutstein, in Israel as part of a two-year training program for Jewish educators, was supposed to return to Harrisburg yesterday for a two-month vacation. His father said he telephoned his son at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday to arrange his homecoming.

"When I got his voice mail, I thought he was taking a test," Richard Blutstein said. "So I left a message for him to call me. Then I heard the breaking news about the bombing at Hebrew University. I called again, in a more strident voice, telling him to call me right away. I never heard from him."

When the call came:

Richard Blutstein, a prominent pediatrician of Pennsboro Pediatrics of Enola, said he was examining patients and his wife, Dr. Katherine Blutstein, was home yesterday afternoon when they learned of their son's death. Seven people were killed and more than 80 wounded in a bombing for which Hamas claimed responsibility.

"The American Embassy in Tel Aviv called Katherine a little after 4 p.m. and told her," Richard Blutstein said. "I was seeing patients. I couldn't turn them away because they were sick, so I saw two more patients. Then, I called one doctor to cover for me temporarily and another to cover for me the next 10 days."

Now, Richard Blutstein said, he feels empty.

"Our son was just 25, on the threshold of life," he said. "His life had purpose. His death did not. He was the victim of hatred, along with the six other individuals who died and the dozens who were wounded in the attack. But we do not hate. Instead, we remember with grief and tenderness a young man whose energy was boundless and whose sense of fun was infectious."

Shock, worry:

The deaths of Americans in the bombing of a cafeteria at Hebrew University have sent tremors through the world of Jews in central Pennsylvania and across the nation who have been sending their children almost ritually to study in Israel's colleges and yeshivas as a way of cementing ties to the land.

Also killed in the bombing were Marla Bennett of San Diego, Calif., who was studying Hebrew in preparation for a career as a teacher and administrator in the Jewish school system; Dina Carter, 38, a librarian who held dual Israeli-American citizenship; Janis Ruth Colter, 36, a teacher at Hebrew University's branch in New York; and David Gritz, 24, who held dual American-French citizenship, living in Paris and the Berkshires in western Massachusetts.

Noting that he has a daughter living in Israel, Rabbi Chaim E. Schertz of Kesher Israel Congregation, where the Blutsteins belong, said he is worried.

"Every family with children in Israel is worried," he said. "But we taught our daughter to value living in Israel. No matter how much fear we have, we support that decision."

Concern over the safety of students prompted two local colleges to cancel their study programs in Israel early this year after terrorist suicide bombings in public places escalated. Messiah College in Grantham had a cooperative arrangement with Jerusalem University College, and Dickinson College Partner Programs Aboard offered study at Hebrew University.

"The safety of the students is paramount," a Messiah College spokesman said in the spring.

Each year, so many thousands of families send high school graduates or college juniors to Israel -- for study both secular and religious -- that it has become a proud rite of passage in some circles, almost as predictable as a bar mitzvah.

On the college level, thousands of American students spend their junior years abroad at one of a half-dozen Israeli campuses; until the violence of the past two years, the number at Hebrew University alone was 1,000. These half-dozen schools maintain large staffs in the United States to recruit students, raise money and organize academic programs -- a practice not common among other foreign colleges.

A familiar figure:

Blutstein was the master of ceremonies at Tuesday's graduation ceremonies at Hebrew University.

He was a familiar figure to other students there in his thick-knit skullcap, baggy trousers and a hoop earring. He was steeped in Orthodox Jewish tradition -- and hip-hop. With his former girlfriend, Rebecca Spilke, he started a hip-hop Jewish band known as Women, Slaves and Minors. The name comes from the Torah.

He won academic awards, debated endlessly with his professors and roamed Jerusalem working as a disc jockey in clubs. He read books on understanding Islam and took such courses as "Women, Gender and Judaism."

"I think he really wanted to reconcile the two extremes," said Andrea Lieber, director of Judaic Studies at Dickinson College, from which Blutstein graduated in 2000.

Spilke, his former girlfriend, said Blutstein was like that, in every way. She plans to speak at his funeral. "He was sort of tough on the outside and really sweet on the inside," she said. "I just want everyone to know how much Ben loved life."

Richard Blutstein recalled his son as a doting big brother to his 13-year-old sister, Rivkah.

"They used to play football on our bed," he smiled. "In fact, they made the bed collapse one time! Rivkah thought her brother was cool, like Superman. They watched 'The Time Bandits' together so many times that they had memorized the dialogue, down to the British accents."

Richard Blutstein said his son was equally popular with his peers.

"When word got out that Ben was in town, people would show up at our house," he said. "He would organize pickup football games in our back yard. He was a serious class clown. ... Ben had a wonderful smile that we will always remember."

Schertz called Benjamin Blutstein "a bright spirit who represented all the positive aspects of decent living. The epitome of evil destroyed the essence of good. This is an affront to our Jewish community and to any decent human."

Services for Blutstein will be held at 3 p.m. today from the Kesher Israel Congregation, 2500 N. Third St. Burial will be in Kesher Israel Cemetery, Susquehanna Twp. Shiva will be observed at the family's home.

Memorial donations may be made to American Pardes Foundation, 136 E. 39th St., New York 10016.

Reese Funeral Home, Harrisburg, is handling arrangements.

Staff writer Mary O. Bradley, The Washington Post and The New York Times contributed to this report. MARY KLAUS: 255-8113 or mklaus@patriot-news.com

Copyright 2002 The Patriot-News."