By:Jeff Lipton
The daughter of the former Lawrence woman who was slain in a drive-by shooting in Israel last month has a message for Arab terrorists: The murder will not deter her family from moving to Israel.
The shooting death of Sara Blaustein on May 29 has actually increased the determination for Blaustein's daughter, Adena Mark of Woodmere, and her family to make the move, she said.
We always had plans to move to Israel, but now I'm going to try to do it sooner, because of what happened to my mother, Mark said in a telephone interview June 14, just hours after she arrived home from Israel.
The terrorist attack has had the opposite effect of scaring Jews away from the Holy Land, Mark said.
Instead of deterring us, we want to go even more so, she said. We always talked about moving to Israel. My brother has immediate plans to go within the next year. We've all moved up our plans to make Aliyah [the move to Israel]. We want to move there even sooner now. ... eventually, hopefully, sooner than later.
Blaustein, 52, her husband Norman, 53, son Sammy Berg, 27, who was visiting from Long Beach, and a hitchhiker were ambushed by terrorists during a midday drive from the Blaustein home in Efrat, Israel, to pray at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Norman was driving, Sara was in the front passenger seat, Berg was behind Norman, and seated beside Berg was the hitchhiker. Blaustein and the hitchhiker were killed instantly in a hail of about a dozen gunshots. Norman Blaustein was grazed by a bullet, which broke his nose and damaged his eyesight and hearing, and Berg was hit in the arm and shoulder. Both men will recover physically, relatives said.
It's a miracle they survived. We believe they were saved on her merit, Mark said of her mother.
Mark's husband, Jeffrey, the owner of J. Mark Interiors in Cedarhurst, said the family plans to return to Israel at the end of September for the Jewish holiday of Succoth.
We're letting people know that we are not afraid, Jeffrey Mark said. We plan to make many trips a year now, even more so. We're less afraid. None of us has any fear in us about what happened. Of course, we're sickened by it, but it doesn't mean we're not going to go there.
The Blaustein car was singled out because it had Israeli plates. And she [Sara] was not military or anything. She was just an innocent person driving in a car who got it, and if it weren't my mother-in-law, it would've been someone in the car behind them. Whoever they could've gotten their hands on, they would have opened fire, Jeffrey Mark said.
It's important that people know that the people who shot them, the Arabs, it was in cold blood and an uncalled-for murder.
Norman Blaustein and his 13-year-old daughter, Atara, will not leave the Jewish homeland. Sara Blaustein moved away from her home in Lawrence, where she lived about 10 years, last August so her daughter could get acclimated before she started high school in Israel. Family members said Blaustein believed Israel is where Jews should live and made the move at her first opportunity. She was already making plans and doing research for her entire family to move there, they said.
They went to be there, Jeffrey Mark said. They went to make a difference. Every Jew that moves to Israel or lives in Israel makes a statement that we are occupying our state, that Arafat is not going to move us out. The last thing we really want to hear is somebody saying, Well, I'm never going there now.' We're encouraging people now more so to go and not to be afraid. We are not the least bit afraid and we will resume with our lives and go further and make a statement with what happened.
Beth Sholom memorial planned
A memorial for Sara Blaustein is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 26 at Congregation Beth Sholom on Broadway in Lawrence, giving friends and relatives who were unable to attend her funeral in Israel opportunity to express their grief and remember a woman who was said to have touched many lives with her kindness and compassion. The funeral in Israel was attended by more than 3,000 mourners.
It's for friends and family who had no outlet for their grief, because everything took place in Israel and they needed some closure to her murder, Adena Mark said.
Memorial complex
In addition, a Torah study complex and library will be built in Efrat in memory of Blaustein and will be called Ohel Sara, or Sara's Tent. The building is a 50-unit complex that already has a waiting list of potential occupants.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to the complex may send donations to: Ohel Sara, 18 Pine St., Woodmere, N.Y., 11598.
This complex will keep, instill and prolong my mother's love for Torah, Adena Mark said. There's already families waiting to move into homes. They are living in trailer houses waiting for homes to be built.
The Marks said they are angry at both the Israeli and U.S. governments for their responses to the ambush that claimed Sara Blaustein. The Israeli government sent a form letter expressing condolences.
Somebody in your country gets murdered and shot and it's a bloodbath. I mean, you don't just send a standard form letter with your name stamped, Jeffrey Mark said.
Norman Blaustein also wrote a tersely-worded letter to the Israeli government. (See letters to the editor)
The U.S. government did not react any better, Adena Mark said, sending no letter of condolence, no representative, and did nothing to encourage the government of Israel to do anything about it. She was an American citizen, her family are American citizens. They didn't do anything about it. They showed no outrage for it.
The Marks have received condolences from all over the world and have a suitcase stuffed with e-mails, faxes, telegrams and letters.
About 50 percent of them are from people we didn't know, Adena Mark said. The response from people that we've been getting, in writing and in person, only makes us want to move there all the faster. It's all been a positive response, from people in Israel and from here; people who now want to move to Israel, because she was such an example of someone who uplifted and uprooted herself.
She had a beautiful life here in Lawrence. She had a big house. They had everything they wanted. Everything here is very materialistic. But it wasn't what she wanted. What she wanted was to live in Israel. If she could do it, anybody could do it. It made people see that there are other things more important in life. The most important thing is the land of Israel to the Jews.
She said she wants her mother to be remembered as a true, down-to-earth person, who loved the land of Israel, loved Torah and loved her family. She never had fear, not even that day [May 29].
For now, the Marks plan to spend the summer with Norman and Atara in Beaver Lake Estates in the Catskills, the same plan they held before Sara Blaustein was murdered.
We were able to deal with it [the murder] because we had each other and because we were in Israel, Adena Mark said, and just being in Israel is in itself a comfort.
