Volume 5, Issue 10 / Tishrei, 5763 / October 2002
She Sought Ways to Help Others
On April 12, 2002, Yelena Konarev, 43, was killed by a woman suicide bomber in Jerusalem. The attack took place at a bus stop near the entrance to the capital's Mahane Yehuda market. Another 104 people were injured in the blast.
Yelena, an economist, immigrated to Israel a year ago from the Caucasus with her father. She wanted live near her daughter, Daria Pochinok, who had immigrated two years earlier. Daria came to Israel as a participant in the Jewish Agency's Selah educational program, a preparatory program for young adults who come to Israel on their own and wish to pursue higher education in the country. Having successfully completed the Selah program, Daria was accepted to study mathematics and statistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Her mother, Yelena, was studying Hebrew, making new friends and creating a life for herself in her new home. "While she was new in the country, instead of asking for help, she sought ways to help others," said one of her friends.
Yelena did not usually go to the Mahane Yehuda market, which was a half-hour bus ride from her home. But that week she decided she wanted a few things that might be less expensive to buy there. That's why Daria, who was at home when her mother was killed, only realized what had happened several hours after the attack, when her mother failed to come home.
Today Daria lives with her grandfather who is 84 in a rental apartment not far from the Hebrew University. She receives financial and psychological support from Israel's National Insurance Institute. The Jewish Agency Fund for Victims of Terror provides the family with rental and tuition assistance, as well as funds to purchase a computer.
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