US ambassador to Israel sends condolence letter to family of slain West Bank rabbi

JERUSALEM ( JTA ) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman in a condolence letter to the family of a West Bank rabbi killed in a Palestinian stabbing attack said that “the government and the people of the United States of America are standing with you.” In the letter, released on Sunday to media outlets, Friedman told the wife and children of Itamar Ben Gal that: “Once again, my heart breaks as I reach out to a beautiful family that has lost a husband and a father.” Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal, a 29-year-old father of four children, was fatally stabbed at a bus stop at the entrance to the northern West Bank settlement of Ariel on February 5. The rabbi was from the settlement of Har Bracha, and had been on the way to the brit of his newborn nephew. The attack came less than a month after Rabbi R