(JNS.org) President Barack Obama called the family of Ezra Schwartz on Monday, Nov. 23 to offer his “profound condolences”. The president “underscored that Ezra’s studies in Israel strengthened the bonds between Israel and the United States and, as we mourn his death, those bonds only grow stronger,” a senior Obama administration official said regarding the call. Obama, the official continued, “condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that took his life.” While a U.S. State Department official swiftly condemned the terror attack that killed Schwartz on Nov. 20, Obama came under fire from some in the Jewish community for not personally condemning the attack and reaching out to the family sooner.