Big-Hearted American Tech Guru Among 3 Killed When Car Plows Into Tel Aviv Restaurant
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A Texas public relations specialist who regularly visited Israel was killed in Tel Aviv when an out-of-control car smashed into a restaurant.
Alan Weinkrantz, president of Alan Weinkrantz and Company, which worked with Israeli high tech companies, was in Israel on a business trip when the accident occurred on Saturday night.
Two other people, including the driver, who is believed to have had a heart attack, were killed in the accident. Six others were wounded.
“He was a packet of energy, Texas-sized energy,” Josh Shuman wrote in the Times of Israel.
Aaron Weinkrantz told local newspaper the San Antonio Express-News, that the U.S. Embassy in Israel contacted him to tell him of his father’s death.
“He was planning to come back to the U.S. on Thursday,” Aaron Weinkrantz said. “So this has been real tough and real, just crazy.”
He said that his father had been going to Israel for business for the last 25 years at least once every year but during the last four years trips had grown more frequent.
A memorial fund was established to help cover funeral costs.
Following the announcement of his death, tributes poured in to his Facebook page from the United States and Israel.
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