In Memory of Rose Lubin
December 1, 2002 - November 6, 2023
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"Life is an ongoing path of mystery, adventure, love. It is like one long book. And like other books, it has a beginning and end."
Rose loved everything about the arts—except technology. She was a playwright, a poet, a writer, and an illustrator. She could dance, sing, and act. She loved people, nature, and animals. Rose embraced life in all its colors, and she herself was a beautiful collection of seemingly opposing qualities. Rosie was tough, yet deeply sensitive. She was exciting and spontaneous, yet capable of sitting down and creating an entire week's meal plan. She was deeply dedicated to her religion, yet completely accepting and respectful of others. She was, quite simply, a rainbow of characteristics.
Rose had a way of bringing people into her world. Her imagination was limitless, and her smile was the very definition of joy. When she walked into a room, you felt it. Here was someone who truly loved life—someone who appreciated what she had been given. She knew her talents and strengths, understood her weaknesses, and, perhaps most importantly, knew how to use all of them to benefit herself, others, and the world around her.
Her mother once asked her, “Are you going to go to college?”
She answered, “I don’t know if that is the route I’m going to take. I want to live a life of service, and I’m going to begin in Israel.”
And that is exactly what she did.
Rose made Aliyah on her own as a teenager. She learned Hebrew, trained as a soldier, and became a Magav police officer. In a speech she gave, she explained why:
“Generations dream to arrive in Jerusalem, and we have the honor to protect her. There are generations of my family who could have been here today if there was an Israel during the Holocaust. I feel an obligation to them to fulfill the opportunities they didn’t have.”
Those were Rose's reasons for joining. She understood that life was not simply about discovering what you were capable of—it was about using those gifts in service of something greater than yourself. And Rose, with all her talent, passion, imagination, strength, sensitivity, and joy, chose to give herself to something she believed in.
On October 7, 2023—Simchat Torah—Rose was off duty. But when Hamas launched its brutal attack on Israel, 20-year-old lone soldier Rose Lubin sought permission to join the Rapid Response Team of Kibbutz Sa’ad, the community near the Gaza border where she lived. She immediately went to help defend her community. While guarding a gate, Rose helped protect Kibbutz Sa’ad and the hundreds of people fleeing the massacre at the Nova Festival. For 17 hours, she fought alongside others defending the kibbutz until she was called back to Jerusalem to resume her duties with the Border Police. With Rose and the Rapid Response Team standing guard, the terrorists were successfully prevented from infiltrating Kibbutz Sa’ad.
Four weeks after that Black Sabbath, Rose lost her life from wounds sustained in a subsequent terrorist attack on November 6, 2023—the day before my birthday.
Before leaving for Israel, her mom said, “Rose, you could die.”
She responded, “Ma, if not me, it will be somebody else.”
That was Rose.
She understood service. She understood responsibility. And she understood that sometimes loving something means being willing to stand up and protect it. First Staff Sergeant Rose Lubin was buried with full military honors at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem. The more than hour-long ceremony concluded with a gun salute as dozens of colorful wreaths were laid upon her grave.
Rose loved Eretz Yisrael. like so many young people who gave their lives to protect all of us.
But Rose's story is not defined only by how she died. It is defined by how she lived. By the joy she brought into every room. By her imagination. By her courage. By her compassion. By her art. By her faith. By her ability to be both strong and tender, spontaneous and thoughtful, deeply devoted to her beliefs while accepting of others. She was a rainbow of characteristics, a force of life, and a young woman who understood that her gifts were meant to be shared.
Rose did not simply exist in this world. She embraced it. And in doing so, she left it more beautiful than she found it.
Rose authored the following for her Bat Mitzvah:
“Life is an ongoing path of mystery, adventure, love. It is like one long book. And like other books, it has a beginning and end. It is hard to believe it but there was a time when I was as young as my little sister Lily, and there will be a time when I am not existent in this world.
So what do I do about it?
I make every chapter in my book worth reading. I work hard, do my best and follow the laws that Hashem has instructed me to follow. I am not going to wait for the world to do something great for me; I am going to do something great for the world.
Now at this point in my life, I have all the power to make a difference, become a better person, and create a mind-blowing life story. And no matter how hard it becomes to withstand the current of wrongdoing, no matter how difficult it gets to turn the other cheek, I will always push to do the right thing and to find the stagnant water where I can be me and make a change.I know what I am capable of, and I know how I can use my talents for the benefit of others.There are no boundaries, only endless amounts of opportunity."
Stories of Rose
"Lubin was different. She was color, music, skipping, laughing, painting and writing. She was light itself"
Rabbi Binyomin Friedman, Congregation Ariel of Atlanta
"Rose taught me to hold my head high, walk with purpose and to love those close to me with all my heart, always offer a hand and never to judge unfairly."
Alec Lubin, Brother
Rabbi Cohen visited us the night we lost Rose and comforted us with a story about "Rabbi who mapped the stars. He could not track a comet. You had a comet, Rose was a comet. Her impact can not be tracked, she shot into this world and out so fast. Now we have been impacted and her story lives on". I spoke of this story every day at Shiva, the 7 days following burial. And The Times of Isra then wrote"Rose was a comet shedding light."
Rabbi Mordechai Cohen
