‘Love can conquer hate’ – Brother of victim in Kosher grocery shooting reflects on sister’s death

The brother of one of the victims of the Jersey City kosher grocery store shooting speaks with News 12 New Jersey.

News 12 Staff

Feb 7, 2020, 3:53 AM

Updated 1,802 days ago

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It has been nearly two months since a shooting targeting Jewish people and law enforcement officers left four people dead in Jersey City.
Among the victims inside the JC Kosher Supermarket on Dec. 10 was Mindy Ferencz, who was married to the owner. Ferencz’s brother Joel Grinfeld reflects on his sister’s death in an exclusive interview with News 12 New Jersey.
Grinfeld says that one of the last times he communicated with his sister was for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. He read a text message that she sent him.
“’G'mar Chatima Tovah, brother and have an easy fast’ and I sent back, ‘Thank you and same to you and your family,’” Grinfeld says.
These are text messages that Grinfeld said he once took for granted. Now they are a reminder of the bond that he shared with his sister.
“She was full of life. Always funny. She as always very funny, very curious,” he says.
Ferencz was one of 11 siblings and a mother of three. Two of her children had birthdays the week that she was killed. Grinfeld says that it was important to his sister to be a good mother because she lost her own mother when she was young.
“She always used to say to my sisters that she didn’t have a mother and she wants her kids to have a mother,” he says.
And as painful as it has been for his family, Grinfeld says that he does not have any hatred for the two gunmen who killed his sister.
“I don’t have an ounce of hatred in my body. I don’t hate anybody,” he says.
Grinfeld says that there is a lesson to be learned and that he has not lost his faith in humanity.
“Love can conquer hate,” he says. “I haven’t lost hope. We can’t lose hope. Hope is what we have.”
Grinfeld says that it is essential that everyone cherishes family and appreciate all the good moments in life because as his family knows all too well, life can change.
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