Murder of 2 Israelis in Mexico leaves some questions

Jewish community members say murders go against trend of improved security in Mexican capital, citing drop in the number of kidnappings.

By GIL STERN STERN SHEFLER
311_Moises Aruh (photo credit: Courtesy)
311_Moises Aruh
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Members of the Jewish community on Monday expressed shock and horror over the murder of Israelis Moises and Sapir Aruh, in an apparent burglary of their home in Mexico City last Friday.
“Generally speaking we’re not familiar with things like this,” Chabad’s rabbi in city, Yossi Mayzlef, told The Jerusalem Post. “We still don’t know anything about it, but we’re in shock. It’s an unusual occurrence.”
Moises Aruh, 60, and his daughter, 24, were found dead by a family member who broke down the door after nobody answered at the home for over a day.
Mexican police say they are investigating the incident and that the family’s driver is missing.
There has been speculation in Israeli media that the killings were somehow related to another of Aruh’s daughters, whose undercover police work recently helped bring down an Israeli drug ring.
The double homicide came as a shock to Mexico City’s 40,000-strong Jewish community, which is usually spared the worst manifestations of the drug-related crime afflicting the country.
Community members said the murders went against a trend of improved security in the Mexican capital, citing a precipitous drop in the number of kidnappings of local Jews by gangs holding them for ransom.
“We haven’t had many kidnappings the past couple of years, mostly due to improved security by the community,” Mayzlef explained.
Shlomo Pawil, the rabbi of the city’s Magen David congregation, said that while crime is a problem for Mexican Jews, it hasn’t reached the epidemic proportions plaguing other Latin American countries such as Venezuela, where more people were killed by criminals in the last year than were killed by insurgents in Iraq over the same period.
“In Caracas, people are afraid to walk out the door,” Pawil said. “Here we have our problems, but affluent people walk on the street freely. They may have bodyguards, but they are not overly concerned about the situation.”