local
moved to Kfar Saba together, arrived
early at the bar, planning to meet
friends. “They arranged to meet some
friends. They were childhood friends,
always cared for each other. When they
did not answer — we understood that
something had happened. We under-
stood that the worst had happened. The
two friends who went out together were
murdered,” friend Gal Benvenisti said
to The Times of Israel.

Omri Morad, along with his wife and
children, joined his family in Israel on
April 9 for his brother’s funeral. They
plan to stay there for the near future.

“He loved traveling abroad but
mainly in Israel. There was almost
no weekend when he and his friends
didn’t take another hiking trip, some
other canal or reef,” Omri Morad said.

“[There are] so many pictures under
waterfalls that he has with his friends.

He was amazing socially ... He had so
many social groups.”
Tomer Morad was a fourth-year under-
graduate student at Tel Aviv University,
where he matriculated after his time as
an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

After learning of his death, staff from his
elementary and high school reached out
to the Morad family.

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“We were just thinking about phrases
to describe him for the grave design,
and we decided that the bottom line
will be, ‘You will always be remem-
bered alive’ because he was only 27 —
It’s something that is unbearable for us
— But in those 27 years, he managed to
do so much,” Omri Morad said.

Omri Morad and his mother visited
the site of Tomer Morad’s death 48
hours afterward, per his mother’s insis-
tence and despite his warning that the
bar, which was closed on that Saturday
night, would be a hotbed for protesters,
both Israeli and Palestinian.

“When we were there, it was like a
zoo,” Morad said. “There were both
groups — political groups from both
sides of the road — both of them
shouting, cursing, throwing things at
each other.”
The scene “completely overwhelmed”
Morad’s mother.

“It’s ridiculous. In Israel, people say
that in every family, there is some
relation to a casualty of war, casualty
of terrorist attack,” Omri Morad said.

“We hadn’t had that. Yes, we had things
happen to us in our life. But none were
so tragic and so horrible as the murder
of my brother Tomer.”
The disaster illustrated one of the
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Tomer Morad loved to travel, particularly in Israel.

reasons Omri and his wife Tamar
Morad chose to leave Israel and settle
in the Philadelphia area, where Tamar
Morad’s aunt lives.

Israeli culture was very intense,
Omri Morad said. Even the way people
drive was “a bit too much.” When the
family had a fi re in their home, it was
the last straw.

Th e couple moved to Newtown
with their young daughter in July
2019, and their son was born during
the pandemic. Th e family belongs to
Congregation Brothers of Israel.

Tomer Morad’s death coincided
with the expiration of the family’s visa,
which is part of the reason they are
staying in Israel until further notice.

But the family hopes to return.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
which “comes in waves,” hit the family
hard, and though Omri Morad wants
to support his family in Israel, he feels
a responsibility to give his children a
Courtesy of Tamar Morad
safe upbringing, which he believes he
can do in Bucks County.

“I’m not afraid that my daughter is rid-
ing the bus to school every morning,” he
said. “And, yes, there were occasions that
we mainly hear from the media about
shootings in school in the United States,
or shootings in the mall. But, for some
reason, it doesn’t bother us so much ... It
doesn’t aff ect us on a daily basis.”
Morad is frustrated by the ongo-
ing war; he feels that Israel’s proposed
solutions to combating terror attacks
haven’t been eff ective. He’s perturbed
by the teaching in some Palestinian
schools that antagonize and target
Jews. He’s not sure of the country’s best
path forward and is hoping to avoid
any more family tragedy.

“Th e only opinion I have is that I am
terrifi ed that this thing will happen to
one of my kids,” Morad said. JE
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