Man Kills 3 Year Old Daughter, Tries to Commit Suicide After Wife Becomes BT, Files For Divorce

Israeli man's wife became "alienated" from him as she became Orthodox.

Father admits to strangling 3-year-old daughter
By Yuval Goren • Ha'aretz

A 33-year-old father from Moshav Batzra allegedly murdered his 3-year-old daughter before attempting suicide, as revenge against his wife for leaving him, authorities said yesterday. 

The man, Assaf Goldring, had just begun divorce proceedings with his wife, Lisa Goldring. She left him about two weeks ago. 

She was at her home in Jerusalem when she heard the news, and collapsed in tears after being brought to Tel Aviv to identify her daughter Noa's body. 

Assaf's father, David Goldring, told investigators he found his granddaughter's body after he called his son and understood from his voice that something was wrong. 

The elder Goldring rushed to his son's house and found his son with his hands covered in blood after a botched suicide attempt. 

Knowing that Assaf had taken the girl on Friday, as part of his agreement with his estranged wife, David Goldring rushed into the bedroom, where he found his granddaughter motionless, with strangulation marks on her neck. 

He called Magen David Adom, and an ambulance arrived within minutes. 

"We found [Assaf] sitting next to the bed. We tried to resuscitate her but it was too late," MDA spokesman Miki Kafri said. 

Meanwhile paramedics treated Assaf, who had tried to slit his wrists and had swallowed pills in a suicide attempt. 

Police investigators found a letter Assaf had written to his estranged wife, in which he said he would hurt their daughter as vengeance for the separation.

In the letter, Assaf said they separated because of Lisa's increasing religious observance, which made her feel alienated from him. He expressed anger toward Lisa and fear that Noa would be taken from him in the divorce, and described the couple's marital problems, police said. 

Assaf was taken to Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava, where he was given emergency care and transferred to an internal medicine ward. He apparently attempted suicide a second time, by removing the stitches from his arms, and shouted and threw objects in his room until he was sedated. As of last night, he was in police custody. 

While in hospital, Assaf admitted to police that he had strangled his daughter and reconstructed his actions since taking Noa from her mother's home in Jerusalem Friday morning. Authorities believe the murder took place between Friday night and yesterday morning. 

It took several hours for the police to contact the mother, who could not be reached by phone because she keeps the Sabbath. Instead, officers went to her home to tell her what happened. She was briefly questioned by detectives in Ramle before being brought to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv to identify her daughter's body. 

The Goldrings' neighbors said the family was well-known in their community. 

"A perfect family," one woman said. "Assaf is a lovely person, I don't understand how could have done something like this," she said. 

David Goldring was a long-time Batzra resident, but recently moved to Ra'anana. He was in the construction materials business for many years, and most of his children, and his wife, still live in Batzra. 

Eli Bracha, the head of the Hof Hasharon Local Council, went to the family's home with local welfare officials. 

Bracha said neither Assaf nor Lisa Goldring had ever complained about domestic violence and that they were not under the care of the welfare department. 

One neighbor said Assaf had been depressed since his wife began becoming more religious, "but who could have known it would come to this," she said.

Comments

[Just a Goy]

How horrible - As a divorced dad I can relate to Goldring's pain, but taking the life of his child? Nothing to describe here but utter selfishness, cruelty.

[Yoni]

While the entire country is reeling from this hideous murder committed by a staunchly secular Jew, who strangled to death his own 3 y/o daughter when he could not abide his wife wanting to become a BT, you have to go and tag on an inflamatory and baseless headline, focusing the spotlight on the wife/mother rather than on the murderer. Disgusting.

I'm sure that if the tables were turned, and a hareidi man had murdered his daughter due to his wife wishing to become secular, you'd have a field day.

It's patently difficult for you to face up to the facts when reality doesn't fit you preconceived notion of the religious as the party always at fault. Or maybe it's just your insensitivity to the loss of life, as someone who's never had the zechus to be a parent.

[the Monsey Tzadik]

I am not sure about this tragic case, but some keiruv rabbis like Leib Tropper encourage couples to get divorce if they are not yet on the same page.

[Elias Johnson]

I fully agree with Yoni. FM, your site has become pathetic, and I no longer enjoy reading. Perhaps it is time to bury the hatchet and enjoy life, or at the very least, use your talents to uproot child abuse instead of picking through the headlines to villify haredim.

[Isa]

What is baseless and inflammatory about the headline?
This stuff happens all the time OR rather one partner in the marriage 'goes on a different path'
But this guy had to kill his own child and could not deal with life. I have heard about guys who could not live the heredi life anymore and walked out on their wife/kids.

[Shmarya]

While the entire country is reeling from this hideous murder committed by a staunchly secular Jew, who strangled to death his own 3 y/o daughter when he could not abide his wife wanting to become a BT, you have to go and tag on an inflamatory and baseless headline, focusing the spotlight on the wife/mother rather than on the murderer.

THe headline: "Man Kills 3 Year Old Daughter, Tries to Commit Suicide After Wife Becomes BT, Files For Divorce"

I think the problem, Yoni, is your bias.

The headline describes what happened as Israeli media reported it.

It shows no bias to or for either parent, and it clearly says the man killed his baby daughter.

But Yoni º– a self-designed paradigm of virtue and "yiddishkeit" – sees in that headline something that clearly is not there: an attack on haredim.

The headline, subhead and article do not use the words ultra-Orthodox or haredi.

The headline and subhead do not criticize the mother for seeking divorce or for becoming Orthodox. Neither does the article.

The fact is, Yoni, you have a problem. You're a rank apologist who cares far more about his side winning than he does about the truth.

That causes you to see bad where there is none and bias where there is none.

Try working on yourself. You clearly need it.

[Ben]

It is clear that guy is a despicable low life.

As for applicability of this article here, one may argue that it is applicable, because one of the kiruv movement ideas that becoming religious brings families closer. This shows that it is not always true.

In fact it is very often not true, but it does not go to the extreme like this. It just breaks normal life of many families, with the secular side expected to always accomodate and give in.

[Yoni]

Enough with the BS. Your self-concocted headline reads:

"Israeli Man's Wife Became "Alienated" From Him as She Became Orthodox".

That's an unfounded statement of fact. You have no idea if it was she that became "alienated" from him, or if it was he that became "alienated" from her, or if it was mutual, or if "alienation" has nothing to do with it. You just concocted that statement out of nothing.

And let's not get into which of us has a problem, sir. I ain't the single 50 y/o bloging in mom's basement with no job, no family and no prospects...

[Shmarya]

That's an unfounded statement of fact. You have no idea if it was she that became "alienated" from him, or if it was he that became "alienated" from her, or if it was mutual, or if "alienation" has nothing to do with it. You just concocted that statement out of nothing.

I see reading comprehension is not your strong suit:n the letter, Assaf said they separated because of Lisa's increasing religious observance, which made her feel alienated from him. He expressed anger toward Lisa and fear that Noa would be taken from him in the divorce, and described the couple's marital problems, police said.

[Yoni]

I see gullibility IS your strong suit. Do you always give credence to the suicide notes of homicidal maniacs (to the point of elevating their crazed allegations to the status of fact), or is it just this one time?

[Shmarya]

I see gullibility IS your strong suit. Do you always give credence to the suicide notes of homicidal maniacs (to the point of elevating their crazed allegations to the status of fact), or is it just this one time?

Let's see:

1. The suicide note says she became religious.

2. Several media reports do the same, at least one noting she refused to have an autopsy done to determine cause of death until given permission from rabbis.

3. She was not religious when they married.

4. No media report disputes the idea that her increasing religiosity was, at the very least, one reason for their break up.

What I wrote is accurate based on the available facts.

What you want me to write has no factual basis – other than your hatred and your bias.

[Yoni]

Oh, I get it, you've bought into the story told by a monster who STRANGLED HIS OWN DAUGHTER WITH HIS HANDS.

You DELIBERATELY failed to add a modifier into the headline, as in: "Israeli Man ALLEGES Wife Became "Alienated" From Him as She Became Orthodox".

Wanna bet that his side of the story is utterly dismissed by the girl's mother? But hey - you'll give credence to a secular BABY KILLER if it can besmirch the orthodox.

This MONSTER was locking his daughter up in a pitch black room, treating her harshly to the point of the 3 y/o flat out saying that she was SCARED OF HER FATHER! That father's a fucking psycho, and you go and imply that blame lies with the mother (that's EXACTLY what your headline implies). You are indeed a quite troubled individual.

[Shmarya]

Idiot. Quotation marks are a modifier.

Now slink off and tell yourself how smart and good you are.

[Yoni]

Yeah, sure, there was our modifier, quotations around the word "alienated". So - you're either as dumb as a puck, or as dishonest as they come. Take your pick, Sherlock.

[Shmarya]

Yeah, sure, there was our modifier, quotations around the word "alienated". So - you're either as dumb as a puck, or as dishonest as they come. Take your pick, Sherlock.

So you're both ignorant and rude. What a shock.

Quotation marks ARE modifiers. You don't know that? Go learn.

[Isa]

WTF Yoni, I see no blame attached to the mother in that article.

[Reader]

What a way to win back the love of your estranged wife! And now his other children must live knowing that their daddy murdered their little sister.
Of course, what business had the b.... of becoming religious and making the poor man snap! It's all HER fault!

[Hometown Postville]

How could anyone have so much hate inside? Now having survived his own suicide, he will have to live with what he did.

[alternative childcare]

This is a rather touching bit from Haaretz, which is clearly telling the story differently than here (because, you know, its such a right wing pro-chareidi newspaper):

ליזה, שנמצאת בעיצומו של תהליך חזרה בתשובה, סיפרה כי גם בתה הושפעה מהדת והתקרבה אליה: "כמה היא אהבה להגיד אמן אחרי הברכות. היא אמרה: 'אמא לא עשית לי נטילה'. מתוקה שלי, ה' ישמור אותך. ה' נתן לי אותך במתנה שלוש שנים. מתוקה שלי. השם ישמור אותך. נשמה קדושה וטהורה. עכשיו ה' יביא אותה לכיסא הכבוד שלו. ה' תשמור על עם ישראל. תעלה את כל ניצוצות הקדושה של נעה הקדושה שלי. אמן ואמן"

Further, the father states that he killed the kid because she looked like her mother:

ליזה, שנמצאת בעיצומו של תהליך חזרה בתשובה, סיפרה כי גם בתה הושפעה מהדת והתקרבה אליה: "כמה היא אהבה להגיד אמן אחרי הברכות. היא אמרה: 'אמא לא עשית לי נטילה'. מתוקה שלי, ה' ישמור אותך. ה' נתן לי אותך במתנה שלוש שנים. מתוקה שלי. השם ישמור אותך. נשמה קדושה וטהורה. עכשיו ה' יביא אותה לכיסא הכבוד שלו. ה' תשמור על עם ישראל. תעלה את כל ניצוצות הקדושה של נעה הקדושה שלי. אמן ואמן"

[alternative childcare]

oops, the second comment didn't post, here it is:
סיפר גולדרינג לחוקריו כי "נכנס בי שד, ראיתי בנעה את אמא שלה שכל כך פגעה בי, רציתי שנעלה שנינו לשמיים, אני אוהב אותה ומצטער על מה שקרה. אני לא יודע מה קרה לי, לקחתי המון כדורים ואחר כך אני לא זוכר מה היה, אני לא זוכר", חזר גולדרינג פעם אחר פעם.

[Reader]

If I understand the gist of it correctly, this is going to be a classic insanity defense - he saw in her her mother who hurt him and he killed her because he loved her (mother or daughter?) and wanted to be together with her (mother or daughter?) in shamayim?
Is he now saying that he killed her AFTER he took a lot of pills? Not likely.

[alternative childcare]

Reader, you are right on both counts. I don't think he really has a good case, if you know what I mean... He needs to share a cell with Elior Chen.

[ML]

Isecond that "WTF, Yoni?"

[anycomment]

While I don't percieve the posted article as biased against the Orthodox, it's is fair to say that this site portrys the Orthodox only and consistently in a negative light -- the site is bigoted against the Orthodox.

Given that this is the purpose of the site, it is not unreasonable to assume that this post was intended to fit into that pattern as well -- altho I can't see how a rational thinker can portray it that way.

If, in fact, this post is not intended to portray Orthodox Jews negatively -- regardless of whether it succeeds -- then it would be helpful for the blogmaster to say so -- given the history of the site.

Clearly, there are posts that imply that the murder is the fault of the Orthodox -- see Ben and Reader (anyone who finds the killing of a 3 year old to be an opportuntity for cynicism is not my idea of a good human being).

[Dr. Dave]

I can't see anyone strangling his own daughter unless severeoy mentally ill.

[Hometown Postville]

Dr Dave- There is a fine line between mental illness and severe domestic abuse. This individual appears to have been more driven by power and control, however, how hard will it be for a good lawyer to convince a jury that "voices inside his head told him what to do" which will land him a vacation in the psych ward instead of prison.

[alternative childcare]

Hometown: That's an American defense, which even in the US no longer works so well, in the rest of the world that defense doesn't work unless the killer is clearly schizophrenic and delusional, which is not the case here. According to his testimony in the Hebrew, he says he "took a lot of pills and after that I don't remember what happened", so its the pills he's blaming.

[Hometown Postville]

AC: Gotta blame something or someone other than yourself- no accountability. I didn't gain weight cuz I eat too much, it's McDonald's fault!