WATCH: worldwide prayer services for soldier injured in Givat Asaf attack
Netanel's Hebrew name is Netanel Ilan ben Shayna Tzippora. Psalms 119 will be recited at the services.
By TZVI JOFFRENathaniel Felber(photo credit: Courtesy)
Prayer services will be held on Tuesday in Israel, the US and other locations around the world for IDF soldier Netanel Felber who was injured in the Givat Asaf terrorist attack last December. The prayer services are also marking Felber's birthday.Services will be held in synagogues, yeshivas and schools in Bet Shemesh, Tel Aviv, the Golan Heights, New York, San Diego and other locations, including London and Moscow.Felber has been in a coma since the December attack. He was released from the hospital in February in unconscious, but stable condition and transferred to Tel Hashomer hospital for rehabilitation.A prayer service at the rehab center with Netanel will be broadcast live on former Member of Knesset Dov Lipman's Facebook page at 6:40 p.m. Israel time.Netanel's Hebrew name is Netanel Ilan ben Shayna Tzippora. Psalms 119 will be recited at the services.Several hundred people attended a prayer rally for Felber at the Western Wall in December."Nathaniel always prayed for all of the Jewish people, now we can repay the favor," Felber's father said at the rally. "I know this next period will be hard, but no one can take away the most incredible 21 years of the first part of his life that we had with him and we will endure during whatever comes ahead."Felber's family made aliyah from Silver Springs, Maryland in 2008.
Rabbi Dov Lipman, a former MK who is also from Silver Spring and a friend of the Felber family, described Nathaniel as having a happy disposition, saying that he is someone who is “all goodness,” who loves to be active helping others and studying Torah.Lipman said Felber had chosen to serve in the Netzah Yehudah battalion, a unit designed for haredi soldiers, so that he could serve for the full three years of military service in a religious framework, instead of the 17 months mandatory service performed in the Hesder program for the religious-Zionist community.“There’s a coming together of the English speaking immigrant community, because he’s one of us and people who have made aliyah in the last 15 years with kids in the army feel a special connection with him and his family,” said Lipman.Felber was critically injured in December after Asam Barghouti opened fire at troops near the Givat Assaf outpost, killing St.-Sgt. Yuval Mor Yosef and Sergeant Yosef Cohen. A female resident of Beit El was also wounded in the attack.He was evacuated to Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem and underwent several surgeries at the neurosurgery unit while there. Though he remains unconscious for more than two months after the attack, he is in stable condition.Jeremy Sharon and Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.
