This life is full of sick ironies.
Nick
Israeli professor killed in US shooting
As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 75-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday’s shooting at Virginia Tech college that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.
Professor Liviu Librescu threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, “but all the students lived – because of him,” Virginia Tech student Asael Arad – also an Israeli – told Army Radio.
Librescu’s wife, Marlena, told the NRG Web site that her husband had loved his job with “all his heart and his soul.”
The couple immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and then moved to Virginia in 1986 for his sabbatical, but had stayed since then, their son, Joe, told Army Radio.
In the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history, the attacker, who had yet to be positively identified, cut down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.
The bloodbath ended Monday with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy, perhaps forever.