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In memory of a fellow student

When I was finishing my Masters degree, I needed to pass the Hebrew Language requirement at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  Go figure.  After failing the exemption test, I took the highest level of ulpan and worked very hard for one semester to improve my language skills.   I recall that we had a non-jewish student who was studying hebrew in order to translate the bible for natives in the Congo.  He was a really nice guy, but rather out of sync with the rest of us immigrants.

Last week on Wednesday, a bomb blew up near a busy bus stop in Jerusalem.  Mary Gardner was another student like my friend from ulpan.  She was studying hebrew in order to translate the bible.  I never met Mary, but I think I would have enjoyed talking to her.  She was a school teacher from Scotland and had spent the last 20 years traveling around the world teaching and working to Togo.  She went to Jerusalem to learn hebrew and lost her life to a random act of terrorism.

You can learn more about Mary from the Herald Scotland.  Her loss reminds me of how terrorism is just a random and meaningless act of violence.  May those who committed this crime receive their just rewards.
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