Lubin’s Legacy Inspires New National Organization

The father of Sgt. Rose Lubin, the young woman from Dunwoody who was killed in Israel in a terrorist attack three years ago, is leading plans for opening the first branch in North America of an organization to support families who have lost loved ones in Israel’s armed services.

Atlanta businessman David Lubin, whose daughter was serving as a Border Police officer when she was killed in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem in November 2023, is helping to establish a branch of Yad LaBanim. It will provide support for family members living in the United States and Canada of IDF soldiers and other Israeli service members who have lost their lives defending the Jewish state.

His daughter, Rose, who was 20 when she died, originally made Aliyah soon after graduating from Dunwoody High School and joined the Border Police. She was celebrating Shabbat on Oct. 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Sa’ad near the border with Gaza when Hamas terrorists struck. She fought to defend the kibbutz throughout the day until she was ordered back to her Border Police unit in Jerusalem.

Just over a month later, Rose Lubin died during a stabbing attack committed by a 16-year-old Arab terrorist while she was on patrol outside Jerusalem’s Old City. The assailant, who resided in East Jerusalem’s Issawiya neighborhood, was shot dead at the scene of the attack.

Among those who eulogized Rose Lubin was Rabbi Binyomin Friedman, who led Congregation Ariel in Dunwoody when she was growing up and who traveled to Jerusalem for her funeral at Mount Herzl’s military cemetery.

He was quoted as saying that, in her brief life she gave herself to her people and to G-d. She had been committed to Israel from her youth, he remembered.

Although the North American chapter of Yad LaBanim is new, the organization has existed in Israel since just after the War of Independence in 1949. It has 13,000 active members in Israel, spread across the country in 65 branches, a 20 percent increase in the last several years. The organization has built several facilities in Israel to bring the survivors of fallen soldiers and other service members together and to lobby for legislation in the Knesset and in civic life in Israel.

Because of the considerable distance that might separate family members in the U.S., the organization here is expected to be separated initially into regions, such as the Southeast, West, and Northeast with a series of gatherings and workshops planned around a geographic locale.

The new organization has the support of several individual philanthropists as well as numerous important entities including the Israel Defense Ministry, Yad La Banim organization, which is headquartered in Tel Aviv, and the Friends of the IDF, which has an extensive and well-financed program of support for Lone Soldiers in Israel. In fact, just six months before she was murdered, Rose Lubin was honored at a fundraising gala in Atlanta of the Friends of the IDF. More than 40 family members attended the event.

In the wake of her death, the The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life announced last year a new award in honor of Rose Lubin. It recognizes Jewish community members who have displayed an extraordinary sense of Jewish pride.

The award, in the amount of $100,000, is awarded to an individual involved in Jewish engagement and identity that specifically inspires Jewish pride. The award is split between a $70,000 gift to the individual and a $30,000 grant to the program or organization in which they have worked.

The winner of the first award was Ana Robbins, founder and CEO of Atlanta’s Jewish Kids Group organization. She was honored for her work to provide Jewish learning opportunities during the school year to children in kindergarten through tenth grade.

The organization’s largest program, JKG Afternoon Community, combines Jewish education with weekday afternoon childcare. JKG’s Jewish After School Accelerator program also provides synagogues across the U.S. with tools, guidance, curriculum, and financial support to launch their own Jewish after-school programs.

In presenting the award to Robbins, vice chair of the Steinhardt Foundation, Sara Bloom, mentioned that the award was presented to recognize Robbins’ efforts to strengthen Jewish pride and support a positive sense of belonging, which is of critical importance for the future of this generation. But Bloom noted that they could think of no one who exemplified Jewish pride more than Rose Lubin.

A formal launch of the North American chapter of Yad LaBanim is expected this fall.