Goldie Taubenfeld

Aug 19, 2003 - Goldie Taubenfeld, 43, of New Square, New York, and her son, Shmuel, three months, were two of 23 persons murdered by a suicide bomber on a No. 2 Egged bus in the capital's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood.

The attack took place at about 9 p.m. as the bus was making its way from the Western Wall to several religious neighborhoods. The Hamas suicide bomber, apparently disguised as a religious Jew, boarded the bus and detonated his bomb shortly afterwards. Seven of those killed were children and over 130 people were wounded.

Goldie Taubenfeld had come to Israel with her husband, 16-year-old daughter, Batsheva, and infant son, Shmuel, to participate in a family wedding. On her way back from a visit to the Western Wall with the two children, Goldie and Shmuel were murdered by the suicide bomber and Batsheva was wounded.

Taubenfeld was the mother of 13 children and came from a prominent hassidic family in New Square. "She was a very pious woman, who performed good deeds all the time," relative Malka Unger related. "Everyone loved her and she loved everyone. All of us in the community feel that we have lost one of our family."

Goldie Taubenfeld was buried alongside her son, Shmuel, in Jerusalem. She is survived by her husband and 12 other children.