Burger joint to open in memory of terror victim at site of Jerusalem’s Cafe Hillel A decade after a suicide bomber targeted Jerusalem’s Cafe Hillel, a friend of one of the victims realizes a dream

A general view of the scene of a suicide bombing on September 9, 2003 after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of Cafe Hillel coffee shop in Jerusalem.

A close friend of a security guard who was killed when he tried to prevent a terrorist from carrying out a suicide bombing will open a hamburger restaurant in the same Jerusalem location as the cafe that was destroyed in the deadly attack.
Yuval Hoveri said that opening a restaurant was a dream he shared with Alon Mizrahi, who died along with six others in 2003 when a suicide bomber targeted the popular Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim Street.
Hoveri told Maariv that he was devastated by the news of his friend’s death and left Israel to spend several years in Belgium, where he ran a bakery. When he finally returned to Israel a year and a half ago, he began to explore ways of fulfilling his old dream of opening a restaurant. When he heard of a chain of burger joints that was looking to open a franchise at the location of the former Cafe Hillel, Hoveri said, he jumped at the chance.

“When it became clear that it was Cafe Hillel, I decided to really live my dream,” Hoveri said. “There isn’t a greater sign than that.”

Hoveri and Mizrahi were childhood friends who often talked of opening a business together one day. After their army service, the two men took jobs as security guards, Hoveri protecting the construction work on the security barrier between Israel and the West Bank, and Mizrahi as a security guard at the restaurant. At the time, the Second Intifada was raging, and a spate of Palestinian suicide bombers targeting Israeli civilians drove cafes and restaurants to hire security guards as a last line of defense for their patrons.
On the night of September 11, 2003, a suicide bomber targeted Cafe Hillel during Mizrahi’s watch. As the terrorist tried to enter the packed eatery, Mizrahi threw himself at him. The bomber then detonated his explosive vest, killing Mizrahi and six others and injuring over 50.
Among the victims were Dr. David Applebaum, the head of the emergency room at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and his daughter Nava, who was getting married the next day.
The new burger joint is scheduled to open next month. Hoveri said it will include a special memorial for his friend.

The 9th Yahrzeit for David z’l and Naava z’l (13 Elul) begins tomorrow (Thursday) at sundown. Our thoughts are with the Applebaum family.

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen meets Mrs Debra Applebaum at Shaarei Tzedek Event in Beverly Hills

BCC & Debra Applebaum


BCC & Paul Jeser


Check out BCC at 1:35 and at 2:00

Talk about getting chizuk just from being in the presence of someone. Tonight, Mrs. Debra Applebaum is speaking in Beverly Hills on behalf of Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem. She's a very happy and upbeat person. Her husband Dr. David Applebaum and daughter Naava were brutally killed by a terrorist bombing at a cafe the night before their daughter Naava's wedding. Naava's wedding dress is on display at Kever Rochel. Debra tragically became a widow and a bereaved parent in one shot. I can't really comprehend the extent of her tragedies and pain; but you would never know it from meeting her. She doesn't dwell on the past, she declines interviews and focuses on going forward in life. She is not a victim.  I'm truly humbled to be in her presence and derived enormous chizuk from merely meeting her. I share this with you, because of the enormous chizuk she represents. Huge Yasher Koach to Paul Jeser of Shaare Tzedek Hospital for organizing this moment of a lifetime. 


Paul Jeser is one a kind. He's a total Mentsch and a class act. He's been a close confidant of my father, Dr. Sam Cohen of the JNF, and is one of the most level-headed people I know. He is ferociously pro-Israel (probably even more than I am). He is totally focused on advancing the life-saving work of Shaare Tzedek Hospital. And he's a loyal friend. Consider this: it's approximately 9 years after the Applebaum tragedy, and Paul is still close to the Applebaum family, honoring the memories of Dr. David and Naava and maintaining a close kesher with Debra. Shaare Tzedek Hospital is very fortunate to have such a focused and dedicated leader. Reuniting with him here in Los Angeles has been an unexpected bonus in my life.  

Kenya to copy Israeli urgent care model, brainchild of Dr. David Appelbaum z'l

The African country will implement the Terem clinics' remote consultation technologies to treat patients who don't require a hospital visit.

Remote consultation saves on costly ER visits.

The Kenyan Health Ministry has decided to adopt the Jerusalem-based model of Terem independent emergency medical centers and set up a similar chain of clinics of its own, a move that will likely transform the African country's health-care system.
"The Kenyans are very dynamic people who are trying really hard to have a successful, democratic, prosperous society," says Terem's assistant medical director Dr. Nahum Kovalski.
Earlier this year, the Kenyan Health Ministry's director-general came to Jerusalem to see the clinics in action. "They want to set up close to 50 community-based emergency care clinics, each servicing a few hundred thousand people in surrounding communities," Kovalski tells ISRAEL21c.
"This is a huge project -- reshaping a health system for a country of 35 million people."
Terem operates five urgent care centers in the Jerusalem area, with more than 250,000 patient visits a year. Only seven percent of them get referred to hospitals. Israeli Health Ministry statistics show that per capita, 30 to 50 percent fewer patients turn up at hospital ERs in areas also served by Terem, meaning that the system significantly reduces stress on emergency rooms.
"A simple ankle fracture doesn't need to go through a hospital. We X-ray the injury, then treat it," he says. "Most fractures can be cast on the spot. Then we send them home. The patient pays a maximum of NIS 86 [about $22]." The primary care physician provides follow-up care.
Real-time remote consultations
What particularly interested the Kenyans, says Kovalski, is Terem's use of the latest medical and communication technologies.

Kenya will set up clinics similar to Israel’s Terem network.

"Access to remote consultation tools is key. We have the ability in real time to review material together. Say a doctor wants a second opinion on an X-ray: It can be sent anywhere, via mobile phone or computer interface. We were one of the first groups in the world to use consultations via mobile phones in a real-time environment."
Inaugurated in 1989, Terem was the brainchild of Dr. David Appelbaum, a Detroit-born rabbi and specialist in internal and emergency medicine, head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, who was tragically killed in a 2003 terrorist bombing in Jerusalem. Today the company employs more than 200 people.
Kovalski, who headed teams of Terem physicians on study tours of Kenya, earned a computer science degree at McGill University in Canada before studying medicine.
"You have to communicate with local doctors and custom-design each system for its market," he says, noting that most households in Kenya have mobile phones and Internet speed there is improving.
"We are doctors who understand technology, not just technologists who understand medicine. We understand the medical needs and can customize the solutions.
"As long as you have Internet, you can have real-time streaming of information. By using portable ultrasound devices, we can revolutionize health care. We're going to see a lot more use of ultrasound in the future -- I've heard it said that ultrasound is the stethoscope of the 21st century."
Proximity will save lives
Another major advantage of the planned clinics is their accessibility. Kovalski points out that the primary killers of children in the Third World are dehydration and pneumonia -- "simple" diseases, he calls them. "If you can get medical care closer to communities, instead of having them walk another day to a hospital, it will save lives." The clinics also will offer community health education.
"At this point we have a complete package. Oracle is providing the infrastructure, including computers, servers, Internet and software support."
The Medical Consultancy and Construction Group (http://www.mccgrouplondon.com), which Kovalski says "builds field hospitals like Lego," is responsible for linking the components.
"We'll be doing the training, and will bring specialist teams to develop customized software for their problems," he says. "We have a large number of well-trained, dynamic doctors who want to be part of this project."
The World Bank is expected to provide funding for the project.
Kovalski is confident that this is the right time to enact changes in approaches to medical care.
"It's almost a perfect storm. As cell phone technologies come of age, this combination of medical knowledge as a package is pretty unique. We've already been approached by other African countries. Once it's working in Kenya, it'll take off."

US can prosecute terrorists freed by Israel

The United States can and should prosecute many of the terrorists who were released by Israel last month in exchange for kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Since the Antiterrorism Act of 1990, it has been a capital crime under American law, punishable by “death or imprisonment for any term of years or for life, or both,” to “kill a national of the United States, while such national is outside the United States.” A conspirator in such a crime can get up to 20 years imprisonment. No statute of limitations precludes prosecution of old offenses.

Another law, passed in 1994, made it a federal crime to use an explosive bomb “against a national of the United States while such national is outside of the United States.” In 2002 Congress authorized prosecution in American federal courts of anyone who, with criminal intent, injured “a national of the United States” outside the United States by detonating “an explosive or other legal device in, into or against a place of public use” or “a public transportation system.”

Prosecutions have been brought in American federal courts against individuals responsible for bombings that killed Americans in the Philippines, Colombia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Many of the individuals accused of these crimes were brought here for trial following their extradition, on the request of the United States, from foreign countries. American prosecutors have not, however, charged the Hamas perpetrators of bombings in Israel such as the 2001 and 2003 bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa, even though American citizens were murdered in these attacks. They have relied on the Israeli legal process to arrest and punish the perpetrators.

Tamimi, al-Jabaa, Sharakh, Amr, and Dar Musa were prosecuted and convicted in Israeli courts. They and other perpetrators of these murders received either multiple sentences of life imprisonment or long prison terms. Until they were released by Israel’s government under duress in order to bring Gilad Shalit home, they expected to spend the rest of their lives in Israeli prisons. They are now free in Jordan or Gaza.

The Department of Justice should now indict, extradite, and put to trial in United States courts, under American law, these killers of American citizens. Jordan has an extradition treaty with the United States that covers all offenses “punishable under the laws in both Contracting States by deprivation of liberty for a period of more than one year or by a more severe penalty.” A conspiracy to commit such an offense is also covered by Article 2(2) of the treaty.

No provision of any extradition treaty should preclude bringing these criminals to justice in the United States. The Jordan treaty bars extradition for “political offenses,” but it would be hard to claim that the mass terrorist killings of civilians in Jerusalem and Haifa were only “political offenses.” At the least, Jordan should be put to that test.

Nor could Jordan or any other requested country invoke the bar against double jeopardy that appears in many extradition treaties to prevent second punishment after a criminal prosecution for the extraditable offense has been conducted and fully carried out. That provision obviously does not prevent extradition of a fugitive who flees a country where he has been convicted in order to avoid imprisonment. It also should not prevent extradition if, by some other unlawful means such as Hamas’ extortionate demand, the criminal process is aborted.

Indeed.

Shayna Applebaum (Naava's z'l sister) gives birth to baby boy

Yesterday was the 8th anniversary of the terrorist murder of Dr .David Applebaum and his daughter Naava H"YD outside Cafe Hillel on Emek. It was the day before Naava's wedding.

As the family assembled at Har Hamenuchot for the yahrzeit, Shayna Applebaum Abramson (daughter of Dr. Applebaum Z"L and Debra, and sister to Naava) and wife to Roni, gave birth to theier first child, a boy, at Shaare Zedek, where her late father was chief of the ER.

Mazel tov to Debra and the Applebaum & Abramson families!

ACSZ - Shaare Zedek mourns Dr. David Applebaum