Life

Manchester Brings Back Memories For Survivor Of Tel Aviv Terror Attack

Albert Square, Manchester Image by Getty Images

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy May 26, 2017

The New York Times ran a powerful op-ed by Tanya Weiz, about her experiences being injured during a terrorist attack at a Tel Aviv disco in 2001. Her story offers a sense of what many are now experiencing in Manchester. Weiz was 17 at the time. While she survived the attack, a friend she’d gone with, Liana, did not:

They kept Liana’s death a secret for another week and a half; they told me she had a broken leg. Liana’s twin brother visited me every day in the hospital, which I thought was weird. Why was he with me and not his sister? The moment I found out Liana died was when the reality of the situation hit me.

For me, a bombing was something you see on the news. Even in Israel, you don’t think it can happen to you. Until this day, I see it in pieces, like a nightmare.

Weiz, who now lives in Canada, is a member of the group OneFamily, a non-profit helping victims of terror attacks that occurred in Israel, discussed in the Forward here.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. She is the author of “The Perils Of ‘Privilege’”, from St. Martin’s Press. Follow her on Twitter, @tweetertation

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.