When Urija Bayer, son of a German Christian family that settled in Israel after the Holocaust out of a desire to “comfort God’s people” (Isaiah 40), fell in the Gaza War, his and his family’s moving story covered with considerable interest in Israeli media.

While the Bayer family is not Jewish, they chose to bind their fate together with the State of Israel and received approval to become permanent residents.

Their son, Urija, represents the third generation of his family who came to Israel to build a home for elderly Holocaust survivors out of the family's Christian Zionist faith and to “atone for the crimes of the Nazis.”

While Urija’s death received much attention in Israel, his family’s ties to Germany also caused many expressions of sympathy for the German Christian who gave his life for the Jewish state, leading his family to take an unusual decision.

His father Gideon told Israel’s Channel 12 news outlet that he received many condolence calls from Germany. “And I said, wait a minute, it doesn’t make sense that I am crying via WhatsApp with people in Germany, mourning via WhatsApp.”

Read the full article at All Israel News.