The Israeli management of the Sbarro food chain announced yesterday that the Sbarro restaurant in downtown Jerusalem that was damaged in the terrorist bombing on August 9 will be renovated and reopened as soon as possible. Fifteen Jews were killed in the suicide blast. The management of Sbarro-Israel said, \"The Jerusalem Sbarro branch has a symbolic significance that goes beyond the commercial aspect, and we will do everything to rebuild it.\"
Although fifteen people were killed in the attack, many more lives would likely have been lost had the owner of the restaurant not gone to the trouble and expense of taking extra precautions beforehand. When Sbarro\'s Yochai Peleg, a resident of Telz-Stone outside Jerusalem, rented the building six years ago, city inspectors informed him that it technically met all requirements, but that it might be advisable for him to install extra supporting pillars. Even after he learned that the cost of the extra columns would be $170,000, he decided to go ahead with it. \"It was out of a sense of responsibility,\" he explained to Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today. \"After all, the building is 70 years old - although I can only wish that they would build buildings today as strongly as they did then.\" After the fatal blast, engineers told him that his actions had prevented the building from collapsing further, thus saving possibly dozens of lives of people in the restaurant at the time.
Work on the restaurant will begin in the near future, and Peleg hopes to complete it by Rosh HaShanah. The total investment in the renovations is estimated at approximately NIS 2 million. Two victims of the suicide slaughter remain hospitalized: Chana Tova Chaya (bat Pescha) Nachenberg, 31, is still in grave condition, and Chaya Schijveschuurder, who lost both parents and three of her seven siblings in the attack.
Although fifteen people were killed in the attack, many more lives would likely have been lost had the owner of the restaurant not gone to the trouble and expense of taking extra precautions beforehand. When Sbarro\'s Yochai Peleg, a resident of Telz-Stone outside Jerusalem, rented the building six years ago, city inspectors informed him that it technically met all requirements, but that it might be advisable for him to install extra supporting pillars. Even after he learned that the cost of the extra columns would be $170,000, he decided to go ahead with it. \"It was out of a sense of responsibility,\" he explained to Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today. \"After all, the building is 70 years old - although I can only wish that they would build buildings today as strongly as they did then.\" After the fatal blast, engineers told him that his actions had prevented the building from collapsing further, thus saving possibly dozens of lives of people in the restaurant at the time.
Work on the restaurant will begin in the near future, and Peleg hopes to complete it by Rosh HaShanah. The total investment in the renovations is estimated at approximately NIS 2 million. Two victims of the suicide slaughter remain hospitalized: Chana Tova Chaya (bat Pescha) Nachenberg, 31, is still in grave condition, and Chaya Schijveschuurder, who lost both parents and three of her seven siblings in the attack.