Asher Raby

On 17 November 1982, Raby attempted to climb the walls of the Bir Ya'qub monastery again, but was caught in the act by a monk, who immediately called the police. After being arrested, he was brought to the police station where, after a brief interrogation, he confessed to murdering a priest in 1979 and to attempting to murder a nun in April 1982. In that case, he came across Arad Sirota and a group of pilgrims, and threw a hand grenade at them – fortunately, none were killed. Raby claimed that after this attack, he climbed up Mount Gerizim, where he recited the Torah for two consecutive days. Initially, police were skeptical of his claims, but Raby provided intricate details that eventually linked him to Philoumenos' killing. As the interrogations went on, he admitted to the murders of Kogan and the Badras as well, claiming he had been following divine commands given to him by God, who had instructed him to rid the world of all evil.

On 7 March 1979, Raby went to a clinic on 109 Rothschild Blvd. and entered the office of Dr. David Kogan, a general practitioner and gynecologist who worked there. Kogan had a storied history in the city, as he was known for performing abortions and for being an accomplice in a 1962 tax evasion scheme in which he and two other men who worked at a hospital for mentally-impaired children in Ramla attempted to evade IL137,000 in taxes. In that case, he was fined IL50,000 and given a 4-month suspended sentence.

On 30 November 1979, Raby approached the Bir Ya'qub monastery in Nablus and jumped over the fence. Upon entering the building, he came across the 66-year-old Philoumenos, who was on his way to enter the confessional. Raby then pulled out a grenade and tossed it at him, destroying a nearby wall and injuring the monk, who somehow managed to survive. Believing that he would identify him if he let him live, Raby then grabbed his axe and crashed it down on Philoumenos' head, killing him instantly. After leaving the monastery, he went to a nearby military camp and, pretending to be homeless, was transferred to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

After becoming an adult, he joined the Israel Defense Forces' Communication Corps and later worked as a truck driver transporting construction materials, also serving as part of a reserve unit during the Yom Kippur War. After the war, his mental health rapidly deteriorated, resulting in Raby quitting his job and becoming very religious. According to neighbors, he would go out at night and cry over the destruction of the ancient Holy Temple, would not talk on Saturdays or drink tap water, instead harvesting rainwater from his yard. His clothes were usually torn and slovenly, and he rarely bathed. At some point during the mid-1970s, he opened a grocery store, but sold it only three months later after the business failed.

Asher Raby (Hebrew: אשר רבי; born 1946) is an Israeli serial killer. A mentally-ill religious fanatic, he killed five people in several attacks committed across the country from March to November 1979, with the most prominent of them being Philoumenos Hasapis, the Greek Orthodox hegumen of Jacob's Well. Deemed unfit to stand trial for his crimes, he was acquitted by reason of insanity and confined to a psychiatric facility.

Asher Raby was born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine in 1946, the eldest of six children born to Afghan Jewish immigrants. He spent his childhood and teenage years in Jerusalem, before the entire family eventually moved to Tel Aviv, settling in the city's Shapira neighborhood. Sometime after their move, Raby's father passed away, and he took over as the main caretaker for his underage siblings.