JERUSALEM (August 13) - They
were the best of friends. Two teenage girls, both 15, from the same
neighborhood, the same Ezra youth movement. MalkaRoth
and MichalRaziel of the
northern Jerusalem neighborhood
of Ramot were constantly at each other's homes.
They shared everything.
Gregarious girls full of life, they were among the
15 killed in the suicide bombing at the Sbarro
pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem
on Thursday.
They were on their way to an activity of the youth movement in Talpiot when
they stopped to meet a third friend at Sbarro for
lunch, Roth's father, Arnold, said
yesterday.
"From the very beginning they were the best of friends," he said,
noting that when the family made aliya
from Australia
in 1988, they rented the Raziels' apartment,
because they were going away to England.
After the Raziels returned, the Roths bought a place of their own two buildings
away."They were good friends from a very early
age who did everything together - shared clothes, shared experiences, shared
life," said AvivaRaziel, Michal's mother.
"They were the same kind of people - outgoing, wanting to help
others."
Malka, or Malki as she
was known, studied at the prominent Horev girls'
school in the city, while Michal
went to Or Torah in Ramot.
Before going to lunch, the last thing the girls did together was decorate the
room of a friend who was returning to Israel
later that day. By the time the friend came back, the girls were no longer
alive.
"She was an extraordinary girl, full of love. Her whole life was an act
of beauty," Roth said.
A gifted musician who played the classical flute, Malka's
music would bring tears to her family's eyes.
Born in the middle of three older brothers and three younger sisters, one of
whom is severely handicapped, Malka helped her
mother caring for the handicapped child. Based on her experience with her
handicapped sister, she volunteered to work with handicapped children.
"She came back glowing from energy and love," her father said.
The family came to Israel
from Australia
when Malka was two."We
were old-fashioned Zionists, and we wanted to bring up our children in the
place where Jewish life is supposed to be lived," Roth
said.
Australian Foreign Minister AlexanderDowner personally conveyed his condolences
to the Roth family. "I have directed the embassy in TelAviv to provide whatever support they can
in this dreadful situation," he said.
Federal Member for Melbourne Ports Michael
Danby, the only Jewish member of the Australian Parliament, also expressed
shock at the tragic loss of life, saying in a letter to the family that Malka's death would be deeply felt in Melbourne
where she was born.
