Six years ago, during the height of the Intifada, I was a participant in a solidarity mission sponsored by the (now defunct) Alliance for Educational Programs in Israel. One of the core Alliance funded organizations was PARDES, where two students, Benjamin Blutstein and Marla Bennett, along with seven others lost their lives in a terrorist attack at the Sinatra Cafeteria shortly before we departed for Israel. To this day, I will not forget that memorial ceremony in the cafeteria courtyard.
Jerusalem, July 31, 2008 – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem today marked the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the university with a memorial ceremony at the scene of the attack on the university’s Mount Scopus campus.
Nine students and university staff members were killed in the attack: Benjamin Blutstein, Marla Bennett, Revital Barashi, David Gritz, David Diego Ladowski, Janis Ruth Coulter, Dina Carter, Levina Shapira and Daphna Spruch. Close to a hundred were wounded.
At today’s memorial ceremony, Hebrew University President Prof. Menachem Magidor said that the shock of the attack was particularly great because it happened right here in our home. Rather than being a random attack on the Israeli public, Prof. Magidor said that the attack was intentionally targeted at the Hebrew University.
“Those who know the details of the event know that the murderers dedicated a great deal of effort to carry out the attack here,” he said. “Their intention was to attack what the Hebrew University stands for – one of the most remarkable symbols of revival of the Jewish people. They tried to uproot the wonderful achievements of study and research. They wanted to taint the atmosphere of this campus, to weaken our commitment to development, pluralism, tolerance and aspiration for peace.”
Eulogizing the students who were killed in the attack, Prof. Magidor said, “We lost Levina’s smile, Daphna’s wisdom, Revital’s pleasantness, David, Marla and Benny’s search for their roots, David Diego’s commitment to serve his country and society, and Janis and Dina’s devotion to the people of Israel.”
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Dear Friends,
Six years ago, on July 31, 2002, a terrorist planted a bomb in Hebrew University’s Frank Sinatra cafeteria, which is across the square from Beit Hillel. Nine people were killed in the explosion, including students and university staff members, and dozens were wounded.
Several of the victims were known and loved by our Hillel staff. Marla Bennet and Ben Blutstein were graduate students at the Rothberg International School on campus and at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies. Some of them had participated in various Hillel programs. Marla had gone with a Hillel group to Ukraine for Pesach and had been a Hillel Scholar in her junior year in Israel. Janice Ruth Coulter had taken Esther Abramowitz’ Women in Judaism course at Hillel.
At the time of the attack, we had been holding a Hillel Israel staff meeting. On hearing the blast, we rushed outside to help the wounded. As medical personnel arrived, they took over and some of us went with the wounded to the hospital, while others went back to our offices to try to resume our usual pursuits. But of course nothing was the same. Each year’s memorial service takes us all back to that day in 2002, as we mourn with the victims’ families and salute the courage of those who have lived with pain ever since.
While all Jews participate in the national mourning for terror victims, many Israelis relate to the attacks they were close to as “their” piguah (terror attack). In this sense, we just participated in the sixth anniversary azkarah (memorial service) of “our” piguah. Only now, after six years, were we able to hear from several of those who had been wounded, as they stood before an audience of several hundred people to tell their stories. It was an exceptionally moving ceremony, in which the victims told of their wounds, both physical and emotional, their recoveries, and their memories of those who were killed that day.
The memorial service took place in the square outside the cafeteria, under a tent that did not quite keep out the intense heat of the sun. In the course of the ceremony, the audience stood for a moment of silence, later for the saying of kaddish, and again at the end, for the singing of the national anthem, HaTikva. This progression is symbolic of Israel ‘s courage and triumph over evil: we remember those we have lost, we grieve for them, and then we reaffirm our determination to live as “a free people in our own land.”
With best regards,
Yossie
Yossie Goldman, Rabbi
Director General, Hillel Israel
Associate Vice President, Hillel International
Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life