Among the dozens of visits to the Temple Mount during the Sukkot holiday, as thousands of visitors make their way to the compound in Jerusalem, one particularly moving visit stood out. On Tuesday this week, an extraordinary moment filled with tears of both joy and sorrow unfolded at the site: a group of about 50 children ascended the Temple Mount as part of an event dedicated entirely to marking what would have been the 10th birthday of the late Emuna Kugel.
Emuna, a charming young girl from Gush Etzion, was killed on a Friday evening in May 2025, when she was only eight years old, in a serious head-on traffic accident near her home community of Meitzad. Emuna’s father received special permission to enter the Temple Mount on this day, despite being barred from the site.
Her father, Rabbi Avraham (Avi) Kugel, a teacher at a Talmud Torah, founder of the “Beyadenu – Returning to the Temple Mount” organization and one of its well-known activists and guides, was the person who led the group of children on the Mount. Rabbi Kugel’s presence at the site was far from routine: he is barred from the Temple Mount under an administrative order. The ban was imposed about two months earlier, following an incident on Tisha B’Av, when the Jerusalem District Police decided to bar him for three months after he passed tefillin, which are prohibited from being brought into the compound, to another worshipper who had entered the Temple Mount with them.
Ahead of the date marking his late daughter’s 10th birthday according to the Hebrew calendar, which fell during the intermediate days of Sukkot, a special request was submitted to the authorities. In a humanitarian gesture, Jerusalem District Police Commander Maj. Gen. Avshalom Peled granted Rabbi Kugel an exceptional, one-time permit to enter the Mount so that he could personally lead the children in the event in memory of his daughter.
How Did 50 Children Mark Emuna Kugel’s 10th Birthday on the Temple Mount?
Due to the heavy holiday crowds and the hundreds seeking to enter the compound, the visit involved a lengthy wait at the entrance, requiring considerable patience from the young children and their parents. Despite the delays caused by the massive flow of visitors and the need to regulate the movement of thousands of people, the group of children walked around the Mount in a festive and moving atmosphere. The children sang holiday songs, listened to age-appropriate explanations about the sanctity of the site, and received surprises and sweets in an effort to turn the memory of Emuna into an occasion of joy. After leaving the Mount, the participants held a seudat mitzvah, a ceremonial meal, in her memory.
The moving children’s visit, held in the midst of the holiday period, gave the many visitors and Emuna’s family a vivid point of light filled with memory, family and longing, amid the great wave of joy among the thousands ascending the Temple Mount.
