And where are your classmates today?

One of mine was just arrested for being a terrorist.

Ever since Yaakov Teitel was arrested I had this nagging feeling that I knew him. The name was familiar to me, but even before I saw his name in the news. As soon as I saw his picture, which I saw before I saw his name, I said to myself - I think that is Jack Teitel.

Mind you, I haven't seen Jack Teitel in maybe 25 or more years, and even when I was friends and classmates with him it was only for a couple of years (his family moved around a lot), so I couldn't be sure it was him when his face and name came up in the news.

When the info was first released, it was very sketchy, and very little background on him was mentioned. So, I saw the picture, and said to myself I think that is Jack Teitel.

Then I saw the name Yaakov Teitel. Still can't be sure, because no background of where he was from and all that, other than that he made aliyah from Florida. In the meantime I started asking people, old classmates along with people here, if they knew any details on this guy and if he had lived in Chicago for a few years as a kid. Nobody knew, and the papers still had little info on him.

I told people I wasn't sure, but I remembered they moved around a lot because Teitel's father had been in the US Navy, or maybe the Army though I was pretty sure Navy.

Then I see some articles start referring to Yaakov as Jack, and now more info has been published that his father was a dentist in the US Navy.

I still have not seen any article say he lived in Chicago at some point, but maybe because they moved around a lot that was not a very significant period to mention, or maybe they don't even know about it if he was only there for a couple of years.

Then a classmate of mine writes to me and also mentions that as soon as he saw the picture he was 99% sure it was him.

So, while I cannot yet be 100% sure (I am still waiting for a couple people to get back to me about some questions), I am 99.9% sure that Yaakov Teitel the Terrorist is my former classmate and friend.

And if you are the Shabak reading this, no need to bring me in for interrogation - it was a long time ago and I don't remember anything about him. Just that he existed and we were friendly. Though I also seem to remember that he was taking karate classes. I don't know why some info sticks in your head and other, more important info, doesn't...