I write these words not only as a grieving father but as a Jew who will not be silenced.
My daughter, Shani Louk, was brutally murdered by Hamas on October 7 at the Nova music festival. The brutality of her murder shocked the civilized world, and she tragically became the most famous victim of that Holocaust-level massacre.
Her bloodied body was paraded through the streets of Gaza. Her face became one of the most recognized images of that horrific day, which marked the greatest slaughter of Jews since the Nazi genocide.
Since that moment, I have tried to carry her memory as a torch of light through the unbearable darkness.
When one of the world’s leading press organizations chose the horrific photo of Shani’s brutalized and lifeless body in the back of a Hamas pickup truck surrounded by five terrorists as their photo of the year, many in the Jewish community objected to the savage image.
But, despite the incurable pain every gaze at that photo causes me and my family, I supported the choice. Let the world see what Hamas did to my child.
Let the world see what Islamist terrorists do to Jews.
Rabbi Shmuely: outspoken defender
One of the people who has stood with our family from the very beginning has been Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. He has not wavered for a single moment. He has stood with the families of the hostages and victims, spoken out for Israel on every global platform imaginable, and traveled the world to fight the rising tide of antisemitism.
For many, he has become the face of defending Israel in the Western world and has paid a terrible price in the form of him and his family receiving daily death threats.
Last year, he brought his friend and now US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to speak at the inauguration of a Torah dedicated in Shani’s memory, where thousands joined us in the Glasshouse in New York City to celebrate Shani’s life.
THAT IS why we were appalled when an event Rabbi Shmuley organized with me, in my daughter’s memory and on the first anniversary of her burial following the IDF discovery of her body eight months after her murder in Gaza, was met with hostility and discrimination by the management company FirstService Residential in New York City.
Instead of compassion, they responded with contempt. Rabbi Shmuley was accosted and berated by building manager Jun Hu after he hosted me on the anniversary of Shani’s burial.
His superior at FirstService Residential not only didn’t stop him but also, shockingly, had their attorney, Robert Braverman of Braverman Greenspun in New York City, send Rabbi Shmuley a threatening letter saying essentially that because there had been five people at the commemoration, he would be substantially fined. And Nancy Chen, a board member of the building, had the chutzpah to lecture Rabbi Shmuley about the proper conduct of a rabbi.
How is this possible?
As an Israeli Jew, I ask myself, how is this possible in a city with over 1 million Jews? How has antisemitism exploded in New York with no one stopping it? How can a company such as FirstService Residential attack the most famous rabbi in America for hosting a vigil for a murdered German-Israeli Jewish woman?
Instead of decency, it resorted to legal threats.
Instead of allowing me an evening with my friend Rabbi Shmuley and the heads of ZAKA (the organization that collects the body parts of those murdered in terror attacks in Israel and affords them a decent and traditional Jewish burial), who accompanied me, they actually threatened the rabbi with fines and legal action.
WHAT KIND of people punish, humiliate, and fine a resident for hosting the father of a murdered daughter in the most infamous terrorist attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust?
Rabbi Shmuley did nothing more than invite a handful of guests to a quiet, respectful gathering to honor my daughter’s life and raise awareness for the hostages still languishing in Gaza.
No vendors. No politics. Just tears, truth, and remembrance.
For this, FirstService Residential issued threats, sent legal letters on Shabbat, and accused Rabbi Shmuley of breaking the rules, which were applied selectively and without transparency.
They tried to make our pain an infraction.
They tried to punish grief.
Worse still were the appalling comments allegedly made by staff members and board representatives: remarks invoking antisemitic tropes, insults against Rabbi Shmuley’s profession and faith, and accusations hurled at him simply for being a Jew who dares speak out.
Human decency and basic humanity
Let me be clear: This is about human decency.
You may disagree with someone’s politics. You may have issues with Israel. Many antisemites do.
But show some basic humanity to the parents and family of the 1,200 people who were murdered, raped, burned alive, and decapitated by Hamas on October 7.
When you persecute someone for comforting a grieving father – a father who watched his daughter’s broken body defiled by terrorists on television in one of the most visible acts of desecration of a woman in the history of the world – you lose every last shred of your humanity.
RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH has spent the last 20 months fighting not just for my daughter’s memory but for the dignity of every Jew slaughtered on October 7 and for the safe return of those still in captivity.
He has met with world leaders, stood on battlefields, and been threatened and attacked constantly by people seeking to harm him for speaking out. He wakes up every morning to hundreds of death threats and is attacked on the streets of Europe, North America, and Australia.
Last week, he was even attacked on American television on Newsmax, live from Europe, as he spoke of the growth of antisemitism in Spain. It was watched by millions of people.
He never relents. He never stops. He never gives in.
And now, for the crime of welcoming me into a room with four guests, he is again threatened, fined, harassed, and disrespected by people who should be ashamed of their coldness.
FirstService Residential’s management and its lawyer owe us an apology.
Not just to Rabbi Shmuley. Not just to me. But to Shani. Her memory deserves better than bureaucratic bullying and callous disregard.
If honoring a murdered Israeli woman is a problem for this building, then the problem is not with us; the problem is with you.
Our people have been persecuted for too long to stay silent in the face of bigotry dressed as policy. We have seen where that road leads. It begins with whispered insults and can end, tragically, with open hostility and violence.
We will not go quietly.
Shani – a symbol of life, freedom, and Jewish pride
Shani Louk was not just my daughter. She was a symbol of life, freedom, and Jewish pride.
And as long as I breathe, I will fight for her name, dignity, and truth, no matter how much harassment I face.
To Rabbi Shmuley, my friend and brother: Thank you. For standing with us. For speaking when others are silent. For carrying the banner of Jewish pride and pain with such unwavering strength. And for fighting all the antisemites who seek the destruction of our people.
And to FirstService Residential: You have chosen disgrace over decency, profit over principle, and dishonor over moral courage.
History will remember the difference.
The writer is the father of Shani Louk, who was murdered by Hamas at the Nova music festival and whose body was held in Gaza for eight months before being recovered by the IDF.