Liba Schwartz

Aug 19, 2003 - Liba Schwartz, 54, of Jerusalem was one of 21 persons murdered by a suicide bomber on a No. 2 Egged bus in the capital's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood.

The attack took place at about 9 p.m. as the bus was making its way from the Western Wall to several religious neighborhoods. The Hamas suicide bomber, apparently disguised as a religious Jew, boarded the bus and detonated his bomb shortly afterwards. Six of those killed were children and 136 people were wounded.

Liba Schwartz used to tell her five children that the Western Wall was the cure for any problem, pain, or illness. On the night she was murdered, Schwartz had gone to the Wall to say Psalms in honor of her son, Yoel, 16, who was beginning his studies at a yeshiva.

"Our mother loved the Wall very much. She would pray there every day," said another son, Eli. "Ever since the Wall was liberated in '67 her father would also go there every day."

Schwartz worked as a sewing teacher and was soon to be awarded a regular teaching certificate.

Liba Schwartz was buried in Jerusalem. She is survived by her husband, with whom she had just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, and by five children and 11 grandchildren.