Netanya Mayor Avi Salma eulogized Rabbi Amos Guata, a prominent kabbalist, who passed away this morning. In a statement, the mayor called the loss a "bitter tidings" and hailed Guata as a great light and pillar of Torah and kindness in the city.
Netanya Mayor Avi Salma issued a personal eulogy for Rabbi Amos Guata at around 07:30 Jerusalem, hours after the Shas party first announced the rabbi's death as 'bitter tidings' at 06:57. In his statement, Salma described Guata as 'a great light and pillar of Torah and kindness,' echoing the language of the party's announcement. The eulogy came as the community mourns a loss that the initial thread reports described as a murder, a detail absent from the mayor's tribute.
The thread on this story opened at 06:57 with initial reports from Israeli media that Rabbi Guata was murdered overnight in Netanya, with a criminal motive suspected. A version 2 item noted a previous murder at the same yeshiva in 2009, though no link was specified. By version 3, reports indicated the suspect was a student who allegedly stabbed the rabbi four times, with police investigating a criminal motive. Version 4, also published at 06:57, shifted to the Shas party's official announcement of the rabbi's death as 'bitter tidings,' without specifying the cause—a development that creates an unresolved tension between the murder reports and the party's framing.
As The Zioneer reported earlier at 07:41, the Shas party's announcement described Guata as a prominent kabbalist, rabbi of Libyan Jewry, and head of the Rabbi Yitzchak Chay Tayber yeshiva in Netanya. The mayor's eulogy reinforces the same biographical details and adds a layer of communal mourning.
What remains open: the cause of death is not disclosed in the Shas announcement or the mayor's statement, leaving the early murder reports—including the alleged student suspect and criminal motive—unconfirmed by official sources. The mayor's eulogy names no suspect and offers no explanation for the passing.
6 developments
- DevelopingRabbi Amos Guetta stabbed to death at Netanya yeshiva; suspect arrested, sent for psychiatric evaluation
- DevelopingRabbi Yehuda Nassi delivers emotional interview following passing of Rabbi Amos Guatta
- StrongProminent Netanya kabbalist Rabbi Amos Guata eulogized as 'great loss' after morning stabbing
- StrongStudents mourn slain Netanya kabbalist Rabbi Amos Guetta at his hospital bedside
Source and signal
- Open-source intake