BY Harvey Tannenbaum, Efrat

Chana had just heard havdala from the rejoicing fathers and uncles of her nephew, the bar mitzvah boy.  The family was in Jerusalem for Shabbat to join with their relatives for the simcha.  The women and children were gathered outside the guest house in Beit Yisrael section of Meah Shearim.  The Toldos Aharon area of the chassidic tish was still going strong, even though it was one hour after the end of Shabbat in Jerusalem.

Suddenly the explosion around the strollers and kids playing jump rope lit up the street.  Chana had just walked over to kiss her 70yr.old mother with a shavua tov kiss.  As they embraced, the bomb went off near where the children were playing on this street closed to vehicular traffic on the Shabbat.  Chana screamed as she heard and saw the orange ball of fire grow near the kids.  This was the result of the suicidal bomber setting off his bomb.  Chana raced over to the area only 40 ft. from where she had just embraced her mother to find the children.

The car that was parked there began to catch fire while it blew up
from the flames of the bomb.  Chana was thrown to the floor as her
clothing was on fire.  The children around her were crying in the
darkness, "Eema, Mami,"

Their screams were heard in Yiddish and in Hebrew by the mostly under 10 year olds who had been playing outside while their older brothers were singing with their fathers inside the hall filled with zemirot of seudah shlishit.   Chana rolled around until she was able to douse the flames on her Shabbat suit.

Chana felt blood coming from her shoulder and realized that her hand was severed at the elbow.  "Where's my arm, where's my arm?"  Miriam Esther, her 2 year old had fallen asleep in the stroller about 15 minutes before the bomb in Meah Shearim.  Miriam Esther and Chana were now separated as the mother cried in pain without half of her hand as she listened to the screams of her 2 year old who was burning in her stroller.

Chana woke up at Shaarei Zedek hospital a few hours ago.  She has
talked to the nurses to find out about Miriam Esther.  The tear on her husband's clothing of his kaftan (Shabbat garb) as he stood near her bedside confirmed that Miriam Esther had burned to death.  Miriam Esther was named after a great grandparent of Chana whom had burned to death in Auschwitz in 1943.

The baby Miriam Esther is to be buried in the early hours of
Jerusalem's Sunday in Har Menuchot.  The bar mitzvah shabbaton of their relatives has now been extended to hospital visits, shiva houses, and long months of rehab for the victims.

There are over 25 children under the age of 13 who are in critical as
well as moderate condition from their post havdala terror experiences.  There are 9 funerals in the next few hours which are being planned here.

As the Arabs danced all night in Ramallah and in Gaza for these Jewish kids who are burning throughout their bodies, the Arabs have now completed their heinous murders of Jews here.  There is no difference between a 'settler, soldier ,secular,and chassidic Jew,'  The target is JEW.

Shavua Tov,
Harvey Tannenbaum, Efrat