Nava Appelbaum

Sept 9, 2003 - Nava Appelbaum, 20, of Jerusalem was one of seven people killed in a suicide bombing at Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim St., the main thoroughfare of the German Colony neighborhood in Jerusalem. She was killed along with her father, Dr. David Appelbaum.

Dr. Appelbaum, a specialist in emergency medicine, had just returned from New York where he had participated in a symposium to teach terror-trauma procedures to medical professionals. He had arrived home just in time for his daughter Nava's wedding. Father and daughter went out for coffee together for a heart-to-heart talk the last night before her wedding. Both were killed in the blast, in which seven were killed and over 50 wounded. Nava's fiance Chanan Sand collapsed in the emergency room of Shaare Zedek upon hearing the news.

Nava, a graduate of the Horev girls high school, had just completed her National Service with Zichron Menahem, a voluntary organization devoted to aiding child cancer patients. She would spend the entire day with the children, and a few weeks ago accompanied a group of them on a trip to Holland. "She was an incredible girl," said one of her Horev classmates. "She studied biology because she wanted to help find a cure for cancer."

Nava and Chanan had met three years ago in the Ezra youth movement, where both volunteered to help needy families. They were engaged last year on Purim and decided to get married after Nava completed her National Service and Chanan the first year of study at yeshiva. Chanan described her as "his other half, a match made in heaven." He described their relationship as something special. They never argued, and complemented one another. Chanan placed the wedding ring he had brought for the ceremony on the cloth covering her shroud.

Nava Appelbaum was buried alongside her father in Jerusalem. She is survived by her mother and five siblings - Natan, 24, Yitzhak, 22, Shira, 18, Shayna, 15, and Tovi Belle, 12.