In a beautiful show of solidarity, today’s Patriots – Bills game was preceded by a moment of silence for terror victims around the world in general and Ezra Schwartz z”l in particular.
A resident of Sharon, Massachusetts and life-long Patriots fan, Ezra was murdered last week by a Palestinian terrorist as he delivered food to Israeli soldiers in Gush Etzion while studying at Yeshivat Ashreinu for the year.
You can watch the moving moment of silence below:
https://www.facebook.com/theisraelproject/videos/10154606943842316/
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While it would obviously have been preferable for them to mention that he was in Israel or taken a full minute rather than a few seconds, we are incredibly touched that the Patriots and the NFL chose to honor Ezra in such a visible and fitting way. This is all the more touching given the fact that so many leaders and institutions continue to make distinctions between terror in Israel (good terror) and terror in the rest of the world (bad terror).
And though the announcer at the stadium didn’t mention that Ezra’s life was taken while in Israel, SportsCenter did say so in its tweet covering the moment of silence:
Thank you to the New England Patriots, the NFL and SportsCenter for having the moral courage to do what is right. Hopefully we won’t need any more memorials like this for a long time.
