Raisa Dikstein

Jun 18, 2002 - Raisa Dikstein, 67, 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.

Raisa Dikstein, divorced and without children, immigrated to Israel from Moscow in September 2000. In Russia, she was a teacher and her only relative in Israel is a nephew, Idan Dikstein. Her brother, Igor, lives in Moscow.

Raisa was a teacher in a technical college in Russia, and after retirement began to learn Hebrew and to translate books from Hebrew to Russian, especially about the Holocaust. She was attending classes at an ulpan in Jerusalem to improve her knowledge of Hebrew. She was on her way to class when she was killed.

Raisa Dikstein was buried in Jerusalem. She is survived by her brother and nephew.