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.  

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.

VERY special Shaare Zedek event featuring Debra Applebaum and the new Israeli Consul General in LA, David Siegel

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 remembers Naava Applebaum