WATCH: Elderly Israeli Aid Worker Attacked By Lion While On Safari
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Ari Feldman November 15, 2017
The chairman of an Israeli aid group was attacked by a lion while on safari in Africa, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the head of ZAKA, who was in South Africa to train search and rescue volunteers, was pounced on by a lioness as he walked next to her.
“It was absolutely terrifying, for the first time in my life I felt real fear, and the power of the lioness,” said Meshi-Zahav. “Out of instinct, I grabbed my kippa so that it wouldn’t fly off.”
Guides quickly moved the lion away from Meshi-Zahav, who escaped unscathed. He said that all he needed was a tetanus injection.
He reported that the attack brought to mind a biblical verse: “Do not be afraid o Israel, fear not, for are you not a lion’s cub.”
In September, ZAKA sent a team to Houston to help clean up in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
