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Past event

From Darkness to Light: A Personal and National Journey

Rabbi Leo Dee came to Toco Hills to talk about losing Lucy, Maia, and Rina, and about faith and what holds a people together. AIC hosted the evening with Congregation Beth Jacob, Congregation Ohr HaTorah, and New Toco Shul.

Speaker

  • Rabbi Leo Dee

    Rabbi Leo Dee

    Author, The Seven Facets of Healing and The Business Case for Israel

    Rabbi Leo Dee was a financial analyst for a decade before he became a rabbi of two communities in the UK. He made aliyah in 2014 and settled in Efrat. In April 2023 his life changed when his wife Lucy and two daughters, Maia and Rina, were brutally massacred by Hamas terrorists while traveling to Tiberias during Pesach. He shares messages of peace, comfort, hope, and inspiration through his books and lectures.

On April 7, 2023, Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife Lucy and their daughters Maia (20) and Rina (15) were murdered in a terror attack in the Jordan Valley.

Rabbi Leo Dee sitting in front of a memorial banner in Efrat carrying photographs of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina beside an Israeli flag.

He has spent the years since talking to Jewish communities around the world about what a person does the next morning, and the morning after that. His book The Seven Facets of Healing is built around seven things Lucy used to name (family, friends, fitness, function, finance, fun, and faith), and his argument is that healing moves through all of them at once.

He grew up in London and spent a decade in finance before he entered the rabbinate. He moved to Israel with his family in 2014 and lives in Efrat with his wife, Aliza.

Rabbi Leo Dee standing beside a painted portrait of Lucy, Maia, and Rina set against the Kotel and an Israeli flag.

He is direct about the politics as well. Terror against innocent people gets condemned without qualification, and he has been sharp in public with journalists who blur the difference between a victim and a killer.

It was an evening about grief, faith, and what holds a people together.

The evening

Rabbi Leo Dee speaking into a handheld microphone in front of a large screen showing the evening's title, From Darkness to Light, with an American flag and an Israeli flag on either side of the stage and the audience seated in rows in the foreground, seen from behind.
Photo: Congregation Beth Jacob

Rabbi Dee spoke in Toco Hills on Thursday, October 22, 2026, and 125 people registered to hear him.

The Atlanta Israel Coalition hosted the evening with Congregation Beth Jacob, Congregation Ohr HaTorah, and New Toco Shul.

Where your contribution goes

The evening was free to attend, and the free tier was a real seat.

There was an optional contribution at registration. It covers the security costs of the evening first. Anything beyond that is shared between the organizations that brought Rabbi Dee to Atlanta.

Because attendance was free, a contribution carried no goods or services in return and is tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

In Partnership With

  • Congregation Beth Jacob
  • Congregation Ohr HaTorah
  • New Toco Shul

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