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News: March 2004

Cupertino woman speaks out about her aunt injured in Jan. 29 Jerusalem bus explosion

Esther Ederi stands with her family in happier times in Jerusalem.

By Mark Levine

When the No. 19 bus made its way down Gaza Street in central Jerusalem on January 29, there was one passenger who knew this would be his last ride. The rest of the passengers were Jerusalemites going about their daily lives.

The day before, Rachel Friedman, a Cupertino resident, had just returned from Israel where she visited her son, Omer, an Israeli army soldier. While there, she also visited other family members, including her uncle and her aunt, Esther Ederi.

The day after Rachel returned home to Cupertino, Jaara, a Palestinian Authority policeman from Bethlehem, was also on a trip, but he wasn’t so far from home. Jaara was on bus 19 in Jerusalem. His body was wrapped by a bomb and he was on a mission of terror to blow himself up on a public bus with the intent of killing and injuring other people’s family members. In this he succeeded. Eleven people died, 19 were injured. One of his victims was Rachel’s aunt Esther, who was critically wounded in the explosion.

“I visited with her twice,” Rachel said. “Esther told me of her ‘strategy’ while riding the bus. She said, ‘I sit close to the entrance and watch for suspicious faces. If I see one – I get off and take the next bus.’ I still can’t believe this happened.” Indeed, that moment of terror in Jerusalem devastated families in Israel and across the globe, and this time it had a direct impact in Cupertino.

At the time of this writing, Mrs. Ederi, 74, is suffering from collapsed lungs, facial burns, hand and skull fractures, and internal bleeding. She has lost fingers on both hands. Doctors are just now beginning to take her out of an induced coma, and she is slowly being removed from a ventilator. The very latest news is that she is now conscious, and - in fact - recognizes her husband, Yossi. “The hospital (Sha’arei Tzedek in Jerusalem) is packed with people who are there to wish her well.”
Rachel’s aunt came to Israel from Morocco when she was 18 years old and worked as a nurse at Bikkur Cholim, another Jerusalem hospital, until she retired. After retirement, she decided to take courses on the Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew University to learn podiatry, specifically to help elderly people with feet problems. For the last five years, she has taken bus No. 19 to her university classes. She was on her way to Mt. Scopus on that fateful day at the end of January.
“What happened,” Rachel said, “was malicious… vicious. People in Israel tell me, ‘We get used to it.’ That simply is impossible, one cannot get used to and accept such horrific actions.”

In conversations with family members in Israel, Rachel learned about the One Family Fund (www.onefamilyfund.org). This volunteer organization visits terror victims and their families, and offers financial and emotional support. The One Family Fund, for example, brought food to the many relatives and friends waiting in the hospital.

“My aunt has a very caring and supportive extended family and a large circle of people who love her. Other victims who survived the terror attack don’t have this cushion of support. That is where One Family Fund comes in,” Rachel said. “As my brother put it, these people are angels. And like many things in life until you need it, you’re not aware of the good help that is available.” The family related that a children’s choir from a Jerusalem school was also coming to the hospital every day to sing songs of prayer to the patients. “They said that it was so very touching and uplifting to hear the children’s voices rolling down the ICU corridors.”

Meanwhile, Rachel and her family wait. No one knows how long it will take until there is dramatic improvement, and what improvement will eventually look like. “When she retired,” Rachel said, “she continued being active… Now we don’t know. What I do know is that she wouldn’t want to be a burden on anyone.”

“The only thing I can do now is offer my support over the phone. It’s frustrating to be so far away from the family in times like these,” said Rachel. “When I think about what happened, it angers me, but anger is mental poison and it doesn’t help, so I try to divert my thoughts. What my aunt - and everyone else who was wounded needs - are positive thoughts and positive actions.”

To keep up with Esther Ederi’s progress, link to www.onefamilyfund.org. Click to the update on the wounded from the Bus 19 bombing. Esther’s condition (listed under Esther bat Freicha) is described and updated. Donations to the One Family Fund can also be made from this site.

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