MDA Ambulance Dedicated in Rose Lubin’s Memory
The moving ceremony was held at Congregation Ariel on Jan. 5.

A large crowd of friends, relatives, and community leaders gathered in the sanctuary at Congregation Ariel on Sunday, Jan. 5 to dedicate an ambulance for Magen David Adom (MDA) in the memory of Rose Lubin.
Howard Zavell had heard about Rose – who died while guarding the Shalem police station in Jerusalem during an attack on Nov. 6, 2023 – and, despite living in Chicago, decided hers was a story that had to be celebrated in Dunwoody, at a place that meant so much to Rose. He had already helped donate several ambulances, but something about this was special.
“Her story touched me differently than anything else since Oct. 7,” Zavell said, speaking at the event. “My wife, Anne, right away, upon us talking about her, said to me, ‘You’re going to donate an ambulance to her, I can tell.’”
Rabbi Binyomin Friedman commented that it was both a sad and celebratory moment.
“We’re happy that she’s being remembered in this way, and that her name will be perpetuated through all the good deeds that will be performed by this ambulance, all the lives that will be saved, and all the generations that will have come from it,” he said. “We’re just sorry it had to bear her name at this time in her life.”
Among the more than 150 people who gathered to celebrate Rose were several local leaders, including Dunwoody Mayor Lynne Deutch, and State Reps. Esther Panitch and Long Tran – both of whom had recently been part of a delegation to Israel which Panitch helped lead, and both of whom had sponsored a House resolution honoring Rose in 2023.

“Having just come back from Israel, and being just a couple blocks away from where she was guarding the day that she was attacked really puts a lot of things in perspective,” said Tran. “I’m glad that this community continues to care, and do things like sponsor an ambulance, and do it in her name, and continue to remember her.”
“Once it goes into service, the ambulance — which Howard and his friends made possible — will help keep Rose’ memory alive,” said Richard Zelin, Midwest region director for American Friends of Magen David Adom. “As the rabbi mentioned, her name will be on the vehicle aimed at treating and saving lives for which she herself was dedicated as her role as a lone soldier and border policewoman.”
Almost everyone who spoke at the event couldn’t help but draw the direct connection between the kind of person Rose was, and the work that she did, with the role that the ambulance dedicated in her memory is destined to play.
“When I sat down to write my comments, the first thing that came to my mind was Rose’s legacy. What we are doing today, thanks to our dear donors, illustrates exactly the values that Rose lived by,” said Israeli Consul Royi Ende. “In a few weeks, this ambulance will travel in the roads of Israel, in Jerusalem. It will travel through the same paths Rose did, wearing the Magav uniform.”
“She was probably the bravest person I’ve ever known,” said Rose’ father, David Lubin, discussing Rose’s actions on Oct. 7. “She opened up this gate and worked with people to bring ambulances in and out of Sa’ad to take the wounded to the helicopters to be taken out, airlifted, out of that area. And here we are, of all things, dedicating an ambulance, something she was truly connected to.”
“On Oct. 7, she was a hero – not because she killed the enemy or fired her weapon. Unusual to Rose’s heroic story, she did neither of those,” said Rose’s mother, Robin Lubin, who delayed her pre-prepared remarks to speak from the heart. “She saved lives, Jewish or not Jewish.”
She was probably the bravest person I’ve ever known … She opened up this gate and worked with people to bring ambulances in and out of Sa’ad to take the wounded to the helicopters to be taken out, airlifted, out of that area. And here we are, of all things, dedicating an ambulance, something she was truly connected to.
“Rose did not judge people,” David Lubin noted, in the same vein. “She didn’t. And an ambulance doesn’t judge people. It doesn’t drive past the person who’s a terrorist, the Muslim, the Christian, the Baha’i, the non-believer, the Haredi, whatever it is – that ambulance goes to protect and help anyone – nonjudgmental. Rose lived her life that way, and we all should.”
The ambulance, which bears two quotes from Rose – one on each of the doors – and has a collage she made installed on the inside, will soon be patrolling the streets in Israel.
“Knowing that it’s going to change their lives when they’re at their worst and that it’s just going to help save their lives – I think that is something that stands by Rose so well,” said Lily Lubin, Rose’s younger sister. “Now that she isn’t here, there’s still a way for her to bring life towards others.”
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