Joseph Jesner

Joseph Jesner, Glaswegian settler colonist

Joseph Jesner (born, 1943, Pollok, Glasgow) is a settler colonist in occupied Palestine. He is the sone of Isaac Douglas Jesner and Claire Chaya Jesner. He married Marsha Joyce Jesner (nee Black) in 1975 in Eastwood and Mearns. They divorced in 1992 at the Court Of Session.

He is the father of Yonatan Jesner (born 1983, Eastwood and Mearns) who was injured in a Palestinian resistance operation in 2002 and later died from his injuries, Ari Marc Jesner (born Glasgow, Park circus, 1976) and Jared Maximilian Jesner (born 1979, Eastwood and Mearns)

The death of Yoni Jesner

A report in the Herald states:

Yoni Jesner was driven by three great passions in his short life: Israel, medicine, and youth work. His love for one of them cost him his life yesterday, two months before his 20th birthday and days before an important Jewish holy ceremony, named the festival of gladness.

The teenager should have been returning to his Giffnock home for the weekend to celebrate the event, also known as the Succoth or the feast of the Tabernacles. Instead, his devastated mother, brothers, and sister travelled to Tel Aviv, where, on doctors' advice, Yoni's life-support machine was switched off.

Like an increasing number of young British Jews, Yoni had decided to spend his gap year in Israel, immersing himself in the Hebrew language and learning everything he could about his religion. But in common with so many of his contemporaries, he became engrossed in the troubled country and decided that one year was simply not long enough.

The brown-belt karate expert, who had taught Jewish studies in his spare time, had been a former head of the religious Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiva, in Scotland and his family were well-known members of the Jewish community in Glasgow. His grandfather was a founding member of the Giffnock synagogue. Although Yoni was dedicated to his faith, he was not fundamentalist in his views. He dispensed with the black coat and hat worn by ultra-orthodox Jews and could be more accurately described as modern orthodox, preferring to dress in western clothes, but wearing a head covering.

Such was his passion for Israel that he took the rare decision to postpone, for a second year, his place to study medicine at University College Hospital in London. When he finished his studies, he planned to move to the Middle East. After numerous phone calls, he managed to persuade the admissions officers at the university to defer his course so that he could complete a second year of an intensive religious studies programme at a college in Gush Etzion, near Jerusalem. It was an ill-fated decision.

On Thursday, with his cousin and best friend, Gideon Black, 18, Yoni boarded a packed number four bus to visit his father and stepmother in Tel Aviv. They had made the journey on countless occasions, and the pair, described as being more like brothers than cousins, sat in the middle of the coach and discussed arrangements for the weekend's festival. Shortly after 1pm, and only moments before their stop, a suicide bomber boarded the bus and, before he even reached the driver to buy a ticket, set off the explosives he was carrying in his backpack. The explosion ripped through the bus, flinging screws and nails at passengers and passers-by.

The blast immediately killed five people and left Yoni fighting for his life. His cousin, who is also from Glasgow but had moved to London, escaped with relatively minor injuries. Police said the casualties would probably have been even worse had the bomber not detonated his explosives so hastily and had the door of the bus not still been open, mitigating the force of the blast.

Yesterday, Black said he was still numb and that the loss of his cousin had not yet sunk in. I'm not crying or wailing. I'm just stunned, frozen. I don't know when it will hit me, but there will definitely be a huge void in my life. He said Yoni's parents had decided to donate their sons organs, meaning he could still carry on his dream of helping save people's lives. While his funeral was held in Jerusalem, Jewish communities across Scotland yesterday paid tribute to a unique and outstanding young man who dreamed of becoming a doctor. Religious leaders in East Renfrewshire, home to Scotland's largest Jewish community, said they were shell-shocked.

Avrohom Weiss, a close friend and senior rabbi at the Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue, said it was not a time for anger, just sadness. What is the good of anger? he asked. 'It can be very hard to understand the mentality of Jewish people. But it's been with us for thousands of years, and it's in our blood - we know that tragedies always happen to us. We have to take these things with faith and trust that there is a God on high watching us.'

Stephen Kliner, president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, said he became well-acquainted with Yoni when he was a very popular and successful youth leader in the community centre. 'It's not unusual for Jewish boys to take a gap year in Israel, but Yoni was one of the few who had gone out to study religion at a yeshiva, a Jewish seminary, and was staying with family in Jerusalem. You always have to question security, but you can't give in to terrorism. But it's particularly tragic that someone who was planning to devote his life to the service of others should die in such an appalling way.'

Ephraim Borowski, chairman of the Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue and a close family friend, said Yoni had been awarded a prize by the community for his youth work. 'He was a very ordinary, no, he was an extraordinary boy. It seems especially ironic that this has happened during our festival of gladness.'

Yoni, whose real name was Jonathan, had attended Calderwood Lodge Primary, Scotland's only Jewish primary school, in Newlands, where his mother, Marsha, is a teacher and where his young sister is a pupil. From there he went to the independent Belmont House High School in Newton Mearns. He was an exemplary pupil, achieving five A grades at Higher and three A grades at CSYS before taking a year out. Ruth Levey, headteacher at Calderwood, said Yoni had grown into a gifted and talented youth leader who won the respect and affection of all. 'Yoni was greatly admired by both young people and adults alike and his loss will be keenly felt throughout the Jewish and wider local community. We feel for his mother and sister who are so much part of our school.'

Stuart McCulloch, headteacher at Belmont House, said the news had a devastating impact on pupils and teachers. 'We shall remember him even more for his humanity and ability to get on with everyone. He was committed to his faith but in our mixed community he was always tolerant, friendly, and understanding to others. He was just a great guy.' Yoni's uncle, Michael Black, said he loved him like a son. He was totally unique. He was capable of handling any situation, from knowing how to clear the dinner table without being asked, to protecting somebody with a problem. That's why he was a figurehead of Glasgow Jewish youth.'

Yoni's brothers, Avi and Jared, who arrived in Israel early on Friday morning, stressed that the loss would be felt not just by the family but the entire Jewish community of Glasgow. 'He touched so many people's lives, helping the elderly, organising synagogue services, and being involved with youth movements, said Jared. Avi said: He was an innocent civilian. It doesn't matter who you are. He was killed because he was Jewish. He wasn't even an Israeli but, because of his love of Israel, we have decided that he should be buried here.

Avi Jesner told mourners about the example his younger brother had set in the youth movement, volunteering for the local Jewish burial society, and his decision to devote time to religious study in Israel. You were also a role model for me, your older brother, he said. In your short life of 19 years you achieved what most people do in double that time.

Just before his son was buried, Joseph Jesner spoke of the need to search for God as a way out of the two years of violence that took Yoni's life. God is looking down from heaven to see who's looking for him. Does anybody know what it means to look for God? If we don't, it won't stop.

Later in the afternoon, as the sun began casting shadows over a rocky Jerusalem mountainside where Yoni was laid to rest, hundreds of mourners, many of the immigrants from Britain, packed into a small chapel to honour a young man who lived and breathed ideals. After the ceremony, with dusk chasing in and most of the mourners gone from the hillside cemetery, rushing home to prepare for the Jewish Sabbath, Mr Jesner lingered alone, sitting on a stone wall and accepting condolences about his sensitive and studious son. 'May you be comforted among the people who mourn for Zion,' said one mourner.

Despite the trauma of burying his son, Mr Jesner showed no bitterness towards Palestinians. 'I'm not political. We're extending our hand. I'm open, but I need to see something from them. I'm living here. I want to be here in the Holy Land.'

Yoni Jesner's passion for the Holy Land cost him his life. He will not be the last.