Donors offer $5,000 for stopping terror attacks

Swiss philanthropists to award sum to anyone who prevents acts of terrorism.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Attorney Mordechai Tzivin (second right) presents $5,000 on Sunday to Rimal Saif, widow of policeman Zidan Saif, who died trying to stop the Har Nof terrorist attack last week. Flanking them are her father and father-in-law (photo credit: MORDECHAI TZIVIN)
Attorney Mordechai Tzivin (second right) presents $5,000 on Sunday to Rimal Saif, widow of policeman Zidan Saif, who died trying to stop the Har Nof terrorist attack last week. Flanking them are her father and father-in-law
(photo credit: MORDECHAI TZIVIN)
A father and son team of Swiss philanthropists are working to fight terrorist attacks – with their wallets.
Businessman Adi Gast, 65, who lives in Israel, and his son David, 30, who lives in New York, will grant $5,000 to any security guard or concerned citizen who prevents terrorist attacks.
The Gasts have already put their money where their mouths are. In 2002, Adi gave the sum to a security guard who prevented an attack at the Caffit restaurant in Jerusalem’s German Colony neighborhood.
On Sunday, their representative, attorney Mordechai Tzivin, went to the Druse town of Yanuh in the Galilee to present a check to Rimal Saif – the widow of policeman Zidan Saif, who died from wounds he sustained while stopping the terrorist attack in the capital’s Har Nof neighborhood last week.
“It was important to me to reward [Saif] because he came, took action, and prevented more casualties while unfortunately getting killed himself,” Adi Gast told The Jerusalem Post. “My approach is to give a push to the people guarding shopping malls, supermarkets and synagogues.
I know they are doing their utmost, especially at this difficult time. I hope there won’t be more attacks – not because I’m trying to save money. It’s better not to be sick than to be sick and have the right doctor.”
The elder Gast earned his fortune in Eastern Europe.
He made news in June 2012 when he pledged a sum of €10 million to fight a German ruling that declared circumcisions illegal.
Tzivin said he had received a warm welcome from Rimal Saif, her father and her father-in-law, who told him they were thankful for the outpouring of support from haredi (ultra-Orthodox) mourners who attended Zidan’s funeral and from people like the Gasts. Tzivin said Rimal was a student from a poor family with no source of income after losing her husband, who had been supporting her.
“I am touched, not just by the amount, but by the thoughtfulness of this saintly man who did such a good deed,” she said. “This proves once again the connection in blood between the Jewish people and the Druse.”