The Day I Didn’t Die In The Sbarro’s Bombing

Twenty-one years ago today, I was in Israel on a work trip and decided to meet a friend for lunch in Jerusalem. I had grown up with non-kosher Sbarro’s at home and going to Israel and eating the kosher versions of my favorite non-kosher foods from my youth was always fun. My friend and I must have met at the restaurant around 1:50. The terrorist bombed the restaurant at 2pm. We walked up to the counter, perused what was fresh, and for whatever reason decided the food that day there didn’t seem terribly appealing. Thank God, the food that day didn’t seem terribly appealing.

So instead of our original plan of having a Sbarro’s lunch, we left the restaurant and headed down Jaffa road, towards the Old City to find another place to eat. We didn’t get very far, but that decision saved our lives. For as we were walking down the road, we heard a loud “boom!”

When you hear a “boom” in Jerusalem, you immediately know what it is. What we didn’t know was if there was a second bomb. We began to run, because when you hear a bomb, you want to run to safety. But we didn’t know where safety was. No one did. It was mayhem. It was terrifying. We didn’t know what had happened or how close we were to being victims of a Jew-hating terror attack. Pay phone lines were jammed due to so many people using them. But I was finally able to reach my husband. We were still in our first year of marriage at the time. (Almost exactly one month later, the tables were turned. It was 9/11 and my husband was in midtown Manhattan trying to reach me to let me know he was still alive.)

I don’t know why God spared my life that day. I don’t know why our people have to be so hated, that our having a tiny sliver of land in the world to call home is too much for too many people. That trying to meet a friend for a slice of pizza is an act of bravery. My life was nearly lost for the crime of being a Jew in her land, yet I have met people, people who see themselves as being on the just side of issues, tell me that as a Jew I’m not part of a historically marginalized people.

Our people have been marginalized since the day Pharaoh enslaved us, yet we have always persevered. But there have been too many heart-wrenching casualties along the way. On August 9th, I thank God that I wasn’t of them.

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Devorah says on August 15, 2022
Wow. I remember that day. I probably always will. That intifada was scary. I remember my flood of tears, the terror, and knowing that someone was “always” being killed. And now, its amazing. During the “third” intifada, so to speak, in 2015 or 2016. I had the oppurtunity to miss an attack myself. And, I was on my way to pray at the Kotel. Crazy, how I forgot about that beautiful day and how comforted I was that Hashem spared me that scene. Looking back, I am who I am today, and the second intifada is a part of that. Ive moved toward Hashem with my pounding heart that lasted through the years and horror. It was hard. But its so beautiful to be in the process of faith. Nothing like Emunah. Its sacred.
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Allison Josephs

Allison Josephs is the founder and executive director of Jew in the City has been involved in the field of Jewish Outreach for over twenty years and is the Partner in Torah mentor to actress Mayim Bialik. She was named one of NJOP’s Top Ten Jewish Influencers and one of the Jewish Week’s 36 under 36. Allison has been quoted or written about in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, People Magazine, NYPost, Daily News, TMZ, The Daily Beast, and Hollywood Reporter. She has appeared on numerous television and radio networks including CBS, ABC, Fox5, TLC, Associate Press TV, and NPR; her articles have appeared in publications including The Washington Post, JTA, Jewish Week, Jerusalem Post, The Forward, and Kveller. Pearson Education, the largest textbook company in the world, produced a video segment on Allison’s life for the Judaism chapter of their textbook. She is a sought-after international lecturer whose corporate clients include Con-Edison and NYU Langone and hosts a weekly podcast on the Nachum Segal Network. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University in Philosophy and lives with her husband and four children minutes from the George Washington Bridge.