Market attack victims laid to rest
By DAVID RUDGE
JPost

Holocaust survivor Leah Levin, 65, who was killed in the suicide bomber attack at Tel Aviv's Carmel market on Monday, was laid to rest at the Yarkon cemetery on Tuesday shortly after the funeral of another victim, Shmuel Levy, also 65, of Yaffo.

Levin, a resident of Givatayim, discovered only four years ago that her brother had survived the Holocaust, in which most of their family perished. She was able to celebrate her birthday for the first time four years ago because of the data gleaned from her brother, whom she thought to have been killed in the Holocaust.

On Monday, she went to purchase a few food items at the Carmel Market and was caught in the blast executed by a 16-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus.

Levin, a retired teacher who had more recently been a folkdance instructor in Givatayim, where she was well known, had enjoyed going to the market to purchase fresh produce and other goods. On Monday, the visit cost her life and left a gaping hole in the lives of the rest of her family, her husband and their four children.

Friends, neighbors and relatives said she was the soul of the family and that her children always looked forward to visiting for get-togethers and family meals.

"She survived the terrible Holocaust and was killed in a terrorist attack," Avraham Levin, a close relative, told reporters on Tuesday.

"She was a wonderful wife and mother to their four children. She was always happy and full of life . . . She went (to the market) to buy cheese and that was the end," he said.

An hour earlier, Shlomo Levy, 65, of Yaffo, was laid to rest at the Yarkon cemetery - four years to the day after his son, Rafael, was hit by a car and killed.

Levy and his family immigrated to Israel from Bulgaria 12 years ago in the expectation of finding a better life in the Jewish state. He always told friends that as Jews they had a duty to live in Israel.

He had worked as an engineer in Bulgaria and continued in the same profession in Israel, working for a company in Petah Tikvah until his recent retirement.

Neighbors said Levy was not an avid market shopper, but went there on Monday with a friend to purchase a few items. A friend who knew him from when they were youngsters in Bulgaria said the family had not recovered from the death of the son and now they had to bury the father.

Levy is survived by his wife, daughter and grand-daughter.

The third victim, Tatyana Ackerman, 32, of Tel Aviv, is to be laid to rest at the Yarkon cemetery at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday. She immigrated to Israel from Russia four years ago with her husband Valeri and their daughter, now 14 years old.

Friends and neighbors said Ackerman worked as a therapist for the elderly and gave them treatment. On Monday, she swapped places with her husband behind the counter of one of the stalls at the market. It was supposed to have been a one time only.

Ackerman was caught in the blast of the suicide bomber's explosives and was killed at the scene. The Jewish Agency is helping to bring her mother and sister to Israel from Russia for the funeral.