Jewish World Review March 4, 2002 / 20 Adar, 5762
JERUSALEM DIARIST
Suddenly the explosion around the strollers and kids playing jump rope lit
up the street. Chana had just walked over to kiss her 70 year old mother with
a shavua tov, "good week," kiss. As they embraced, the bomb went off near where the
children were playing on this street closed to vehicular traffic on the
Sabbath.
Chana screamed as she heard and saw the orange ball of fire grow
near the kids. This was the result of the suicidal bomber setting off his
bomb. Chana raced over to the area only 40 feet from where she had just
embraced her mother to find the children.
The car that was parked there, began to catch fire while it blew up from the
flames of the bomb. Chana was thrown to the floor as her clothing was on
fire. The children around her were crying in the darkness, "Eema!" (Mommy).
There, screams in Yiddish and in Hebrew by the mostly under 10 year olds who
had been playing outside while their older brothers were singing with their
fathers inside the hall, filled with zemiros, liturgical songs of seudas shlishi. Chana
rolled around until she was able to douse the flames on her Sabbath suit.
Chana felt blood coming from her shoulder and realized that her hand was
severed at the elbow. "Where's my arm, where's my arm?" Miriam Esther, her
2 year old, had fallen asleep in the stroller about 15 minutes before the bomb
in Meah Shearim. Miriam Esther and Chana were now separated as the Eema, mother,
cried in pain without half of her hand as she listened to the screams of her
2 year old who was burning in her stroller.
Chana woke up at Shaarei Zedek Hospital a few hours ago. She has talked to
the nurses to find out about Miriam Esther. The tear on her husband's
clothing of his kaftan (Sabbath garb) as he stood near her bedside confirmed
that Miriam Esther had burned to death.
The toddler was named after a
great grandparent of Chana's whom had burned to death in Auschwitz in 1943.
The baby Miriam Esther would be buried in the early hours of Jerusalem's
Sunday in Har Menuchos cemetary. The bar mitzvah celebration of their relatives has now
been extended to hospital visits, shiva mourning houses, and long months of rehab for
the victims.
There are over 25 children under the age of 13 who are in critical and
moderate condition from their post havdala terror experiences. There are 9
funerals in the next few hours which are being planned here.
As the Arabs danced all night in Ramallah and in Gaza for these Jewish kids
who are burning throughout their bodies, the Arabs have now completed their
heinous murders of Jews here.
There is no difference between a
"settler," "soldier," "secular," or "Chassidic Jew." The target is the JEW.
"Where's My Baby?
Where's My Arm?"
http://www.jewishworldreview.com
| Chana had just heard the havdala ceremony from the rejoicing fathers and uncles of her
nephew, the bar mitzvah boy. The family was in Jerusalem for the Sabbath to join
with their relatives for the simcha, joyous event. The women and children were gathered
outside the guest house in the Beis Yisrael section of Mea Shearim. In the Toldos
Aharon area, the Chassidic communal tisch was still going strong, even though it was
one hour after the end of the Sabbath in Jerusalem.
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