The Illuminated Donkey

Tonight begins Purim, the Festival of Lots, the most joyous holiday of the Jewish year. However, for my girlfriend and her family, it will always be a time of sad rememberence. On Purim, in 1993, my girlfriend's brother, Jason (known by his Hebrew name, Yehoshua, in Israel), who was two days shy of finishing his enlistment in the IDF, was hitchhiking from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv when he was kidnapped and then murdered by 3 Palestinians dressed up as religious Jews.