Persecuted Messianic Jewish Family Faces Purim Bomb Scare

Jews celebrated Purim this week, but the time for celebration turned out to be a fearful time for some. David and Leah Ortiz had a bomb scare, one of the latest examples of what this family has gone through for their faith.

Charisma first told the story of the Ortiz family in the February issue of Charisma magazine. (Click here to read the article). The couple followed the call of God and immigrated to Israel from the U.S. in 1985 with their three young children. On March 20, 2008, a bomb disguised as a Purim gift package was delivered to their door by a Jewish extremist. And it appears it just happened again. The following is a first-person account from the Ortiz family about a bomb scare earlier this week, written on Thursday:

For those who have heard that something took place today at our house in Ariel, we had an incident at about 12:30 when a large, closed, brown carton was brought to our door and left by someone.

When we looked on our security cameras, we saw a man in his 30s wearing a kippa, with a Purim mask—not on his face but put up on his head, bringing the package, ringing the doorbell and then running down the stairs.

We immediately called the police, closed our steel-enforced door and went into the bedroom farthest away from the hallway. Then we called all the believers in town to warn them about any suspicious packages at their doors or next to their property.

At least 20 policemen arrived, along with the bomb squad (hablanim) that had to come from an IDF base in the Nablus area around 20 kilometers (about 12.5 miles) from Ariel, two fire trucks, police cars, etc., blocking off the street. It took a couple of hours to take us out of our third-floor apartment by the window using a lift on one of the fire trucks.

We had to be taken down two by two; we were four adults and two small children in the apartment. They said they had to be careful as it was a new computerized lift that they had never used before.

The bomb squad also lifted themselves up through the window with the robot and when they saw the box, they were very alarmed and they called out to the others from the window, saying it wasn’t like a traditional Purim gift package (mishloach manot) and it was suspicious.

They told everyone to get back. They sent the robot into the hallway, and destroyed the box which turned out to be filled with food products—a relief not only to us but also to our neighbors who had also been evacuated from their apartments. They had to move their cars away from the building as well.

All these efforts lasted for three hours. The media showed up on the scene, and even though they told us that it was too late for anything to be put on the air today, maybe on Sunday there will be a follow-up report on this. Leah was interviewed by phone and they wanted to know how we are after four years, and how Ami was doing. There was a photographer that showed up and he was asking us why is it that when Jews believe in Yeshua, everything changes for us, while if we believe in other beliefs, it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

A representative from the religious community showed up and said that they were doing a project through the Orthodox elementary school in town to give food packages to needy families and it was delivered to us by mistake, but the media and the security services said they didn’t buy that story so quickly and they’re trying to find out if it was a bad joke to scare us or if it was truly a mistake.

The event was very costly—bringing in all that equipment and man power. The people from the media continue to call us up sounding upset and are telling us that it sounds very suspicious to them, and that if it is a mistake it is inexcusable.

The head of the bomb squad told us he had been at our house four years ago, and that we have to always be very careful and not hesitate to call them when something suspicious happens. He commended us for doing the right thing.

Thank you for your concern,
David, Leah and family

Click here to view the Ortiz family’s letter, and scroll to the bottom for their prayer requests.