Update on the Chareidie Guy Who Murdered His Wife

  In a horrendous tragedy which occurred on Friday afternoon, a Charedi couple were found shot dead in their home on Moshe Sneh Street in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem, in an apparent homicide-suicide. A gun belonging to the husband was found adjacent to the bodies.

The couple’s names have been cleared for publication: Or Chaim Hamdani Cohen (38) and his wife Esther (35), of blessed memory. Details regarding the funeral, which will take place today, will be announced separately. The couple are survived by their four children, one of whom heard the shots, found them dead and alerted police.

According to sources familiar with the family, they were a normative, well-regarded family belonging to the Sephardic community in the neighborhood. The husband regularly prayed at the local synagogue, and the wife worked in the Atarot industrial zone. She was also well known in the community for managing a central charity organization (Gemach) to support new mothers.

The couple’s children attend well-known educational institutions in the neighborhood. The tragedy has left the community in shock, including acquaintances from the boys’ Talmud Torah and the girls’ neighborhood school.

MDA paramedic Eden Marzayev and MDA emergency medical technician Omri David, who arrived at the scene, said:

“We were led into the apartment and saw a man and a woman unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing. We performed medical examinations and were forced to pronounce them dead at the scene.”

Shira, whose daughter studied with Esther, the murdered woman, said that “She was a righteous woman. She ran a clothing charity. Her daughter is in the same class as my daughter. She has a two-year-old baby, a child in kindergarten, and a daughter in third grade. From the outside, it seemed like her husband was disconnected from her—off in his own world, in his own head,”

Shira also participated in weekly Torah classes with the victim. “I would see her often at the Torah lessons. A classic charedi family. I ran a summer camp a year ago, and her daughter attended. The husband would bring them in the morning. Even in my darkest thoughts, I never imagined it could come to this.”

Despite what seemed like the outward appearance of a family dealing with ordinary challenges, Shira shares something that might shed light on the tragic incident.
“I understood that she opened a case at the Rabbinical Court a week ago—she wanted a divorce. In the neighborhood, we don’t know how to process this. What to think, how to feel.”