Mendel Bereson

Jun 18, 2002 - Mendel Bereson, 72, of Jerusalem, was one of 19 people killed in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus no. 32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem.

The terrorist boarded the bus at 7:50 A.M. at the stop in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood opposite Gilo, and almost immediately detonated the large bomb which he carried in a bag stuffed with ball bearings. The blast destroyed the front half of the bus, packed with people on their way to work and schoolchildren. Of the 19 victims, 17 were residents of the Gilo neighborhood; 74 people were injured.

Mendel Bereson immigrated to Israel from S. Petersburg in 1991 with his wife Sophia and daughter Nina. His son Simion had immigrated a year earlier. A shoemaker in Russia, he continued in the same profession in downtown Jerusalem. He was on his way to work when he was killed.

Relatives said he loved life. "He was the center of the entire family," they said. Mendel's son Simion said, "He was a true Zionist who always said that the Jews have only one state. At the same time, until his last day, he was optimistic and believed in peace with the Palestinians." Bereson was a child during World War II and most of his family was killed in the Holocaust.

Mendel Bereson was buried in Jerusalem. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter, and three grandchildren.