A Jewish university student was killed in the suicide bombing in Russia on Tuesday. Igor Akimov, a Jewish History major, was killed on his way to class by a female Chechen suicide bomber who detonated herself outside an upscale Russian hotel he happened to be walking past.
Akimoy had just exited a subway station, ten minutes early for his class, when the explosion killed him and four others instantly.
A freshman at Moscow State University’s Center for Jewish Studies and Jewish Civilization, Akimov graduated from a Jewish day school in Uzebekistan. His program was affiliated with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Akimov’s friends say he was deeply involved in Jewish life, leading his class at Or Avner Jewish day school, attending Jewish camps, and participating regularly in his local Hillel organization.
This is the second Chechen suicide bombing in seven months, both carried out by women. Last July, two bombers killed 15 and injured 60 when they blew themselves up at a rock and roll festival at a Moscow airfield.
Tuesday’s terrorist blew herself up outside the entrance to the National Hotel, just a few hundred yards from the Kremlin and the Russian Parliament building, which may have been the intended targets.
Despite the close location of the school to the site of the bombing, classes went on as usual.
After school on Tuesday, when students came back to their dormitory on the outskirts of Moscow, they discovered that Akimov was missing. They turned on the TV and heard a report on the incident, but police and medical sources had misspelled Akimov’s last name as Aripov, and his friends decided it wasn’t him.
Only later did they discover the mistake.
David Rozenson, who works with Moscow’s Jewish community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he met Akimov in July while the two were attending a Jewish studies conference in the Uzbek town of Samarkand.
Rozenson recalled how he took a walk with Akimov through Samarkand’s ancient Jewish quarter. “I have rarely met someone who was as enthusiastic and serious about Jewish studies as he was. He really was a very special kid. He told me his dream was to become a professor in Jewish history,” Rozenson said.
Akimov’s body will be flown to Uzbekistan for burial later this week.
Motya Chlenov, director of the Moscow office of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, said his group would provide financial help to Akimov’s parents.
The money will be taken out of a fund established earlier this year to help young Russian Israelis who have suffered injuries and psychological trauma from Palestinian terrorist attacks.
“We Jews know too perfectly what terrorism is,” Berel Lazar, one of Russia’s two chief rabbis, said in a statement. “Russia is facing the same threat that our people in Israel have had to fight for decades.”
Akimoy had just exited a subway station, ten minutes early for his class, when the explosion killed him and four others instantly.
A freshman at Moscow State University’s Center for Jewish Studies and Jewish Civilization, Akimov graduated from a Jewish day school in Uzebekistan. His program was affiliated with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Akimov’s friends say he was deeply involved in Jewish life, leading his class at Or Avner Jewish day school, attending Jewish camps, and participating regularly in his local Hillel organization.
This is the second Chechen suicide bombing in seven months, both carried out by women. Last July, two bombers killed 15 and injured 60 when they blew themselves up at a rock and roll festival at a Moscow airfield.
Tuesday’s terrorist blew herself up outside the entrance to the National Hotel, just a few hundred yards from the Kremlin and the Russian Parliament building, which may have been the intended targets.
Despite the close location of the school to the site of the bombing, classes went on as usual.
After school on Tuesday, when students came back to their dormitory on the outskirts of Moscow, they discovered that Akimov was missing. They turned on the TV and heard a report on the incident, but police and medical sources had misspelled Akimov’s last name as Aripov, and his friends decided it wasn’t him.
Only later did they discover the mistake.
David Rozenson, who works with Moscow’s Jewish community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he met Akimov in July while the two were attending a Jewish studies conference in the Uzbek town of Samarkand.
Rozenson recalled how he took a walk with Akimov through Samarkand’s ancient Jewish quarter. “I have rarely met someone who was as enthusiastic and serious about Jewish studies as he was. He really was a very special kid. He told me his dream was to become a professor in Jewish history,” Rozenson said.
Akimov’s body will be flown to Uzbekistan for burial later this week.
Motya Chlenov, director of the Moscow office of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, said his group would provide financial help to Akimov’s parents.
The money will be taken out of a fund established earlier this year to help young Russian Israelis who have suffered injuries and psychological trauma from Palestinian terrorist attacks.
“We Jews know too perfectly what terrorism is,” Berel Lazar, one of Russia’s two chief rabbis, said in a statement. “Russia is facing the same threat that our people in Israel have had to fight for decades.”