Brave British Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife Lucy, and two daughters, Maia and Rina, were killed by Hamas gunmen in 2023 is to marry again after falling in love with Aliza
The British Rabbi whose wife was killed by evil Hamas gunmen has found love and is getting married again.
“I’m going from grief to joy,” he told the Mirror in an emotional interview. Leo Dee, was left devastated by the murder of his wife Lucy and their two daughters, Maia and Rina, who were shot dead in Israel on April 7 2023 – exactly six months before the horrific Hamas attacks which left 1,200 people dead and 250 taken hostage.
Lucy’s lungs, liver, kidney and heart were donated to save the lives of four other people. Her kidney saved the life of 39-year-old Palestinian carpenter Abu Radia. Now two and a half years later Rabbi Dee will wed Aliza later this month in front of friends and family.
And he insisted his first wife would have fully approved of his new bride. He said: “I feel that life has to go on. When terrible things happen it’s possible to put them in the past and to live your life into the future.
“I feel like I don’t have to be defined by my tragedy. I look at the positive in life and try to overcome the negative and try to make a disaster into something meaningful.”
He went on: “Life rarely gives us answers wrapped in ribbon. It gives us moments. Quiet, painful, surprising moments. Lucy was perfect for me for our idyllic 25 years together – the ideal partner for a young man finding his way as a rabbinical student, exemplary as a mother of five, and the spiritual architect of our home. But tragedy rewrites a person. And the man I am today is not the man that I was.
“Aliza is perfect for the man I’ve become. She brings out the best in me – and she’s the most optimistic person I know. Lucy taught me how to love, how to listen, how to give without overpowering.
“Maia taught me how to parent, how to believe in someone’s potential. Rina taught me how to be a human – how to care for the planet, and even more, for people who don’t think like you do.
“And tragedy? Tragedy taught me how to see what matters. It stripped away the noise. It left behind only the meaningful: friends, family, purpose.”
School teacher Lucy, 48, and her daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were shot dead while on holiday. The two men who carried out the attack were later killed by Israeli forces. The rabbi, from Radlett, Herts, who has two surviving daughters and a son – Keren, Tali and Yehuda – moved from London with his family to Efrat, near Bethlehem.
He said he first decided to find a new partner last year. He said: “I came back to an empty house a year ago. On the Shabbat just over a year ago, as I ate a meal myself, all my remaining three children were away over the Sabbath. I just burst into tears and I cried for half an hour. And at some point, I thought to myself. Why are you crying?
“When you feel pain, it comes as a blessing. I suddenly realised: I need to get remarried. I suddenly felt calm. The tears stopped.” He added: “So how does someone get from heartbreak to happiness? I still don’t know. I do know this: sometimes the first step isn’t understanding. It’s crying alone,, and listening for the still quiet voice that follows.
“I’m going from grief to joy. I know Aliza is just perfect for me. I am not the same person I was when my family were murdered. I was determined from then on to look forward not back. This is the pinnacle.
“I am not one person anymore. I am a mosaic – pieces gathered from a 25-year marriage, from raising five children, from loss, and from healing.”