Leah Baruch

Jun 18, 2002 - Leah Baruch, 59, of Jerusalem, was one of 19 people killed in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus no. 32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem.

The terrorist boarded the bus at 7:50 A.M. at the stop in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood opposite Gilo, and almost immediately detonated the large bomb which he carried in a bag stuffed with ball bearings. The blast destroyed the front half of the bus, packed with people on their way to work and schoolchildren. Of the 19 victims, 17 were residents of the Gilo neighborhood; 74 people were injured.

Leah Baruch worked for the past 23 years at the President's official residence, as head of housekeeping. She kept house for presidents Chaim Herzog, Ezer Weizman and Moshe Katsav. Yitzhak Herzog, the late president's son recalled yesterday this his parents hired Baruch as the first family's housekeeper and "a warm personal relationship blossomed" between them during Herzog's years in office.

Leah was a compassionate woman - towards people, towards the cats and dogs she adopted, and towards the plants she nurtured at the President's residence. She immigrated to Israel from Iraq at the age of six, after the death of her father. As a child, she was forced to help out supporting the family and learned to read and write in evening classes. She lost her hearing and her sight in one eye as a result of complications from a childhood illness. She was divorced many years ago, and raise

Leah Baruch was be buried in Jerusalem. She is survived by two daughters, Hani (31) and Mazal (30).