Eadera Victims
Teacher, border policeman, soldier among
14 killed in suicide bombing.
NAOMI SEGAL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Volunteer Killed
Following her retirement four years ago, longtime
elementary school educator Ofra Burger had
immersed herself in volunteer work. Her favorite
Jerusalem
retired schoolteacher, a young border
project was the environment.
"I will remember Ofra as a woman who cared," said
police officer and a dedicated soldier
the deputy mayor of Hod Hasharon, Moshe Erez.
due to complete his service were among
"She was very involved in community life. When
the 14 victims of the Oct. 21 suicide car
any harm was done to the environment, she would
bombing against a bus in northern Israel.
Other victims were not immediately identified
call and inform us."
Parents, teachers and students throughout the
because, pathologists said, identification had to be
community knew Burger, Erez said.
done by blood samples, a much slower process, as
Burger had gone to
the state of the
visit her sick mother in
remains could not be
Tiberias and was return-
matched to informa-
ing home on the bus
tion supplied by fami-
when the attack occurred.
lies of missing Israelis,
Her husband and three
such as height, hair
children survive her.
color and distinctive
> • Iman Sharuf had
markings (Related
spent the past two years
brief page 12).
serving with the border
According to
police in Hebron. He
reports, the No. 841
was stationed at the
Egged bus had
border police memorial
stopped to pick up
during the past week
passengers at Karkur
after being injured in a
junction when the
traffic accident. Sharuf
jeep pulled alongside
boarded the Egged bus
and blew up. The
near the memorial
massive fire that
shortly before the blast.
engulfed the bus ham-
Friends described
pered rescue efforts.
Sharuf as a quiet per-
Witnesses spoke of
son,
who had ambitions
watching helplessly as
Ayelet, right, daughter of Ofra Burger, weeps at her
to advance within the
people burned alive.
mother's funeral together with other relatives in the central
military framework.
Guy Yechiel, a wit-
Israeli town of Hod Hasharon on Oct. 22.
"Iman loved his fami-
ness, said he was trav-
ly, he took care of his parents and his entire home,"
eling with a friend
when he heard the explosion. "It was huge, like
the paper quoted a family friend. His parents and
something I'd never heard before," he told Israel's
four siblings survive him.
Nir Nahum was due to come home Thursday on
Channel Two Television. "We ran over to help the
a weekend leave, but the car in which he hitched a
wounded. I saw a soldier lying on the ground, his
ride had just passed the Egged bus when the explo-
hands were fluttering. I grabbed them and asked
him, is he okay, does he need something. And then sion occurred. Nahum served as a company ser-
geant in the artillery corps. His father believed his
he just died."
son had traveled to Karkur junction to bring some-
Some 25 people wounded in the attack remain
hospitalized. Six, including a 2-year-old, were listed thing to one of the troops.
"Nir was someone who was always thinking
in serious condition.
about how to contribute to the battalion and the
Israel's transportation minister, Ephraim Sneh,
said Tuesday that 80 additional guards would be
soldiers," said his father, Rami, a reserve major. "He
was an outstanding youth, and I'm not saying this
recruited to help secure buses.
But he acknowledged the guards could only help
because he is my son. As a company commander in
the army, I've seen all kinds of soldiers, and a boy
keep suicide bombers from boarding public trans-
portation. There was little they could do, he said,
like this I've never met."
A neighbor described Nir Nahum as a quiet,
to prevent a car bomb from blowing up beside a
modest person who made his parents proud.
bus — even as Islamic Jihad, which claimed
responsibility for Monday's attack, said the destruc- Nahum was scheduled to complete his compulsory
army service in six months. His parents and four
tive power of such car bombings had made them
• siblings survive him. Fl
the group's weapon of choice.
A
Emergency Funds
.
Israel campaign designates
funds after school security
costs are reduced.
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York City
he United Jewish Communities, the umbrella
group for North American federations, has des-
ignated $18 million in new funds as part of its
Israel Emergency Campaign.
The move comes amid scrutiny of the campaign,
stemming from confusion over funding for one of its '
designated priorities, security for Israeli schoolchild-
ren.
The latest allocations — for medical services,
trauma relief and citizen safety programs -- include
$12 million that were originally targeted for school
security. Those funds . were reallocated after the
Israeli government estimated it needed $8 million
for 865 school guards at kindergartens and nursery
schools rather than $20 million for 1,500 guards,
according to UJC officials.
The Israel Emergency Campaign, the largest
emergency fund-raising effort for Israel to date, was
launched in April to respond to the material and
emotional needs of the Jewish state amid the ongo-
ing intifada (Palestinian uprising). Some $319 mil-
lion has been raised, and the campaign has been
extended through next year.
A lawsuit by an Israeli father against the govern-
ment for failing to place guards, at his 4-year-old
son's school prompted several stories in the New
York Jewish Week that detailed the objections by
parents and local Israeli authorities to a total alloca-
tion for school guards they deem insufficient.
The UJC confirmed that the program to begin
hiring and placing the school guards got a late start.
They had been scheduled to be placed in early
September, the beginning of the school year.
Now most of the guards have been hired and
placed, according to Jeff Kaye, director of financial
resource development for the Jewish Agency, with
the rest slated to begin work by the end of this
month.
Still, officials in Israel made clear that there will
continue to be small kindergartens that are not pro-
tected.
•
Interviews with officials at the agencies involved
revealed finger-pointing across the board. But the
consensus was: Israel sharply reduced its initial
assessment of the costs for school guards, and that
move caught UJC off guard.
7
Assessment Changed
-
UJC officials say they have to defer to the Israeli
government's assessment of its needs on such mat-
ters. "I'm content to simply accept the security
analysis of the government," which, in matters of
security, knows best, said Stephen Hoffman, UJC's
FUNDS on page 28
•
IriAm
10/25
2002
25