Houston, TX – An unrepentant convicted double-murderer, who became the first-known Jew executed by lethal injection in the state of Texas when he was put to death July 31, was granted a halahkic burial due to the tireless efforts of a Houston rabbi and New York “practical Kabbalist’ who became the inmate’s “Jewish interface” through a series of letters.
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JHVONLINE.com (http://bit.ly/1ey4n9O) reports that 55 year-old Douglas Feldman was executed after spending 15 years on death row for killing two truck drivers in two separate incidents of road rage in Dallas County in the summer of 1998.
Feldman, who acquaintances believed suffered fro mental illness, was a former financial analyst who, despite the fact that he was born into the Jewish faith, declined to identify as such when entering the Texas penal system, and even went as far as to plan his cremation after his execution.
But after a lengthy, sometimes contentious jailhouse meeting with Rabbi Dovid Goldstein a consulting rabbi for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and Rabbi Mendy Traxler, Goldstein’s Chabad Outreach colleague prison chaplain associate, a mere seven days before his execution, Feldman laid tefillin and became a Bar Mitzvah.
Rabbi Goldstein said he was first contacted about Feldman through a Houston-area law school non-profit opposed to the death penalty who put him touch with Feldman’s mother, who told him she had only minimal contact with her son since he hit death row.
After lengthy discussion, Feldman’s mother asked Goldstein to visit her son, telling him that no one from the Jewish faith had interacted with her son aside from “one man from New York.”
James Irsay, an academic on “practical Kabbalah” and host of a classical radio program on New York public radio, had struck up a long-standing correspondence with Feldman after the inmate contacted him upon reading some of his writing on Jewish mystical art in a magazine.
“I wrote him back because he had been through a lot,” said Irsay. “He appealed to me as a Jew. I couldn’t turn him down. I felt a responsibility to respond.”
Irsay said that, through their correspondence, he became aware that Feldman suffered from “spiritual distress,” and subsequently painted and sent him a Kabbalistic amulet that “harnessed the force of light – a warrior force – which attacks and defends against the dark force.”
Irsay said the amulet became Feldman’s most prized prison possession, and that the inmate was especially drawn to one of the names of God – spelled shin-daled-yud, included on the amulet.
On the day that Rabbis Goldstein and Traxler visited Feldman he was antagonistic, vehemently denouncing the Jewish faith with derogatory statements about Jews.
He bragged to the rabbis about how good it felt killing his victims and at one point told Rabbi Goldstein, “If you piss me off, I would kill you, too.”
After multiple rebukes to his suggestion of a Bar Mitzvah and a proper Jewish burial, Goldstein doubled-down, attempting one last time to reach Feldman—this time through spirituality.
Feldman let on his interest in Kabbalah, telling Goldstein about a picture he’d seen of a WWII-era Jew being ridiculed by Germans while wrapped in a tallit and tefillin.
Goldstein produced a similar photo, explaining to Feldman that the Hebrew letter “shin” is the “warrior letter” and the same letter that appears on the leather box bound around the head during prayer.
Goldstein asked Feldman if he “wanted to be a warrior,” after which the rabbi said Feldman said “Yes” and broke down.
“Let’s have a Bar Mitzvah,” Goldstein said.
“I put the tefillin on him, made the blessings, and then he became emotional,” Goldstein said. “He started to cry.”
Upon leaving, Goldsteinasked for and received a hug from Feldman.
A week later Goldstein and Irsay met in Houston where they were ultimately successfull in convincing Feldman’s mother to reconsider his burial plans on the day of his execution.
Feldman’s mother said it was Goldstein hugging her son—the first time in 15 years that another human being had lovingly embraced her son–that changed her mind.
“I showed true care and concern for him [when he was still alive], so she knew I would show true care and concern for his burial,” said Goldstein.
Wow what a story!!
The executed double murderer, Douglas Feldman, terrorized the Dallas area in 1998. He went after a truck driver, with his motorcycle, whom he claimed cut him off. Then, he emptied his 9mm pistol into the truck, killing a 36 year old driver, who was the Father of a young child. Then, 45 minutes later, in another act of road rage, he opened fire on another truck driver, who was fueling a gas station with his tanker. He also killed that driver. A few days later, he opened fire on another truck driver, wounding him. However, the third time he was caught. Shortly before he was executed, he bragged about the killings, and stated that “he sentenced his victims to death”. Feldman was a sociopath, and a poster boy for the death penalty. Texas, unlike New York State, and other states, does not tolerate that kind of violent, deviant behavior. In the end, justice was served.
This is the meaning of true Ahavas Yisroel. They didn’t excuse his reprehensible actions. They just focused on whatever value he still had while alive & to do what’s proper afterwards.
Nebech. A lost neshomo.
I’m not impressed. This defective human ended the lives of 2 and destroyed the lives of their loved ones. What a waste of misplaced effort.
This is a little sick. When reading about such a disgusting character our first thought shouldn’t be “did he lay tefillin?” While everyone is entitled to religious counsel, I wouldn’t publicize the fact that I hugged such a person, especially after his venomous comments towards his victims. Maybe have some rachnomus for people who aren’t criminals?
Too little, too late- probably not even Jewish (father).
Did the people he murdered get a decent funeral. Please stop with the “jewish” stuff. He is a killer. Don’t idealize him. If the same would have happened with a different religion, you never would have tried to excuse him that he had a mental problem. Let it simply be.
He still deserved a proper burial before facing the consequences of his actions in the next world.
B’mos Reshaim Rina!
Number 8 is right -stop with the Jewish stuff- he’s an animal and they should have killed him a long time ago! He had no regrets till the end! He loved killing and would’ve done it again!
to commenters 8 and 6
It is well known that most criminal lowlifes pursue such behaviors because they had damaged backgrounds. NORMAL people with NORMAL upbringing don’t do these things. Maybe if someone hugged him 15 years ago no one would have lost out in this story.
And from the article, no one is idolizing him, hes a reprehensible person. However, perhaps the pintele yid could have been lit 15 years earlier and avoided this disastrous life.
Why should the state execute people with mental illness when really we as a society should be aiding those with mental illness and give treatment before tragedies occur?
The story wasn’t about a person that killed people put on teffillin. The story was about the Chabad rabbi’s that broke down the barrier between his body and soul. Its an amazing and inspiring story.
no one is ideolizing him or excusing him for his actions..
Proper Jewish burial for a murderer is outside of the Jewish cemetery. This article is perversr. You think there’s someone putting tephilin on him in hell?
A wonderful story.
Methinks that some of the comments are conflating the two issues of Ahavas Yisrael and punishment of wrongdoing.
As a consequence of his deadly actions on the outside, Feldman received the appropriate punishment.
This does not negate the fact that he was given the appropriate ministerial services for a Jewish inmate of the Texas penal system, and those who ministered to him in life and in death did a big mitzvah.
Every Jew is entitled to a halachic burial, regardless of their misconduct in life.
It is reassuring that the frum Jewish organizations such as Agudath Israel and OU and NCYI did not create a chillul Hashem by trying to mobilize the the Jewish community to ask for clemency for Feldman, the way they did for cop-killer Martin Grossman in Florida.
Of course the man deserved to die – he was a crazed murderer. He even threatened to kill the rabbis, according to this article.
What is beautiful is that the effort that the rabbis went through to try to reach his soul before his death. That is amazing. What training do Chabad young men receive that they are able to persist and still see a soul behind someone like this, who denied his own Judaism, who threatened them with violence?
In an age where Jews cannot seem to find common ground on anything, with the vitriol getting louder and louder in Israel and abroad, these chabad rabbis found a spark of soul in the most unlikely of places. I am in awe of these Chabad people – they are the saving grace in Jewish religious leadership today. I salute them.
Some people are born with genes that predispose them to aggression and violence, but even so there are ways to express these in a way that is acceptable by society. Being a surgeon or shochet, for example. It amazes me that until he was 40 he did not do this and it all happened on one day. The article gives little details so we do not know if he was on drugs that day or why he was so enraged. I am sad for his innocent victims and their families. The fact that he had no remorse for such heinous crimes, after 14 years, is alarming. Our health care system usually excludes treatment for mental illness and this is what happens when a person who is unable to deal with his anger is not treated or hospitalized. When this Jew meets his Maker, he will have a lot of explaining to do, but the Rabbi helped give him a few mitsvot before death and since we are all in the image of God, that is OK.
So he is on a plane to Tel Aviv?
To #28 - It really amazes mean how you can refer to me as “a self hating Jew”, when I merely reported on the facts (from public records), of the executed murderer, Feldman. Any motorist who has ever experienced road rage on the highway, and survived, should have compassion for the families of the victims, as they will have to live with their losses for decades. Halacha teaches us to have compassion for other human beings, no matter what their ethnic background is.
This wasn’t actually about Tefillin but on that topic:
R’ Aryeh Levin a”h once visited a prisoner and asked him if he wanted to put on Tefillin. The prisoner had killed his own wife. “How can the hand that murdered my wife wear teifllin?” R’ Aryeh responded Davka such a hand needs to wear tefillin.
Tefillin is not a prize for being good. It is a chiyuv doraysa. Stop confusing things.
#31 [Anonymous] says: “The organizations didn’t ask for clemency, they asked to have Grossman’s death sentence commuted to life in prison.”
Commuting a death sentence to life imprisonment? That sure sounds like clemency to me!
“a mere seven days before his execution, Feldman laid tefillin and became a Bar Mitzvah.”
Who says that Hashem wants such a person to put on tefillin? I am reminded of the posuk (verse) in sefer Yeshayah (Isaiah) 1:15, where Hashem says ‘when you raise your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; Even if you pray much I will not hear; Your hands are full of blood’.
The whole idea of a ‘bar mitzvah’ here is phony. As I suspect the so called ‘kabbalist’ involved is as well.
What a Jewish chaplain should do at such a time is try to get the person to repent for his crimes, not to make some phony ‘bar mitzvah’.
Enough of these publicity stunts!
to all you people saying this is wasted effort on a rotten person when effort is better spent on good people who cant care for themselves etc… I have 2 things to say to you
1) Even if you are right about this being misplaced effort better spent elsewhere, at least they are making an effort SOMEWHERE. when was the last time YOU went out of your way to make live better for someone and bring them closer to Hashem??? get off your desk chair and stop picking your nose and telling others what to do.
2) May someone be there for YOU when YOU are in trouble.