Posted on 07/06/2002 11:34:52 PM PDT by Sabertooth
They were both Jews born in Israel and both found a happier, safer life in America -- one the father of eight, the other, an angelic daughter.
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Victoria Hen was shot and killed at LAX on July 4.
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Relatives and friends on Friday mourned Victoria Hen, 25, of Chatsworth and Yaakov Aminov, 46, of North Hollywood.
It was the day Hen was supposed to get engaged. After just two months as a ticket agent for El Al airlines welcoming passengers with a cheery smile, she was the first person shot by Hesham Mohamed Hadayet.
Aminov, a diamond importer who was seeing off friends returning to Israel, was mortally wounded moments later as Hadayet sprayed 10 or more bullets around the second-floor ticketing level at Bradley International Terminal.
"There aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe Vicky's kindness and her loving heart," said Joseph Knoller, whose family grew very close to Hen over the years she baby-sat his children and as she worked as an office manager for his private security company.
"She had her whole future in front of her," he said.
Reading from a statement on behalf of Vicky's parents, Avinoam and Rachel Hen, and her two teen-age brothers, Knoller described Hen as "a true angel," with a warm smile and a desire to serve others.
Hen was born Jan. 31, 1977, in Israel. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1990, hoping for a better life away from the bloodshed in the Middle East.
Hen graduated in 1995 from Birmingham High School -- the same campus attended by slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl -- then worked for Knoller's security company, and as accountant and medical office manager, before going to work for El Al.
She loved her new job with the airline, greeting passengers with a smile, Knoller said. Her dream was to marry and have children.
"Her boyfriend was supposed to propose to her today, and one of her goals in life was to find a loving, caring husband and to settle down with a beautiful family, which she probably would have had. And unfortunately because of this hate crime and this terrorist crime, she's going to stay young forever."
Meanwhile, scores of mourners gathered at the North Hollywood home where Aminov lived with his second wife, Anat, who is pregnant with the couple's sixth child. Aminov had three older children from a previous marriage.
Friends chatted on the front law, offering consolation to each other, sharing the pain of the tragedy.
Aminov was one of the leaders of a tightly knit Sephardic Jewish community in the San Fernando Valley, which came together to support Anat Aminov as she planned to have her husband's body transported back to his native Israel following a memorial service on Sunday.
"They will enfold her..." friend Jerry Burg said. "... with wings of love," his wife, Fern, concluded.
According to Rabbi Aron Tendler of Shaarey Zedek, the largest Orthodox congregation in the San Fernando Valley, Aminov's family didn't much care about Hadayet's motive for fatally shooting two people and wounding three others.
"As the wife said to me this morning, 'He's dead, he's not going to come back,' " said Tendler, a spokesman for Aminov's family.
But in the statement read by Knoller, Hen's relatives challenged the U.S. government's initial conclusion that the shooting death was not an act of terrorism.
"This was a murder. We believe this was an act that was carried out by a terrorist against Israelis on American soil. We wish that the American government will once and for all take a clear stand on the issue of terror and will act on it," he said.
He added that while governmental agencies continue to investigate whether the shooting was an isolated incident or related to other terrorist acts and groups, the family maintains it is a terrorist act.
"This person walked into an international airport on the Fourth of July with two firearms and a knife and targeted an airline of Israel. It is an act of terrorism," he said.
A memorial service for Yaakov Aminov will be at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at Yad Avraham, 12426 Burbank Blvd., Valley Village.
A funeral for Victoria Hen will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Groman-Eden Mortuary, 11500 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills.
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We all wish this but it's not going to happen yet.
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