Tatyana Sapunova (b. ~1974) is a Russian

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study Biology, biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from Molecule, molecular to organismic ...

who was seriously injured by an act of

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

on 27 May 2002. She was subsequently awarded the

Order of Courage The Order of Courage may refer to: * , a state decoration of the partially recognized republic of Abkhazia * Order of Courage (Iran), a state decoration of Iran * Order of Courage (Russia) The Order of Courage (russian: Орден Мужес ...

on 21 June 2002 by President Vladimir Putin, to which she replied, "The news was entirely surprising".Gorodetsky L
"Russian law enforcement urged to curb anti-Semitic extremists", ''Jewish Telegraphic Agency''
/ref>

Background

Tatyana Sapunova's maternal grandfather was a

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

-speaking Jewish doctor from

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

, who was imprisoned in the 1930s, and then sent to fight in the war. He moved around the

U.S.S.R. The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

several times, going from

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

to the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

, and then to

Tomsk Tomsk ( rus, Томск, p=tomsk, sty, Түң-тора) is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, located on the Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. The city is a not ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. His daughter, Yelena (b. ~1947), married a Russian

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, later saying that she had not felt her Jewishness for much of her life. Their daughter Tatyana was baptised as a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, and she grew up not identifying herself as a Jew or Jewish.

The bomb attack

On the morning of 27 May 2002, Sapunova was driving along a road about southwest of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, with her 4-year-old daughter and 55-year-old mother Yelena as passengers, when she spotted a sign near the roadside bearing a slogan variously translated as "Death to Yids", or "Death to the Kikes". The sign had in fact been there for at least a day, but no-one had taken it down. Tatyana was greatly offended by it, stopped her car, and got out to take the sign down. However, it was

booby-trap A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...

ped, and when she pulled on the sign, it set off a

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

, resulting in severe wounds to her legs, hands, and face. She was left with burns and lost sight in one eye.

Her treatment

Sapunova was treated in a hospital in Russia, where she was visited by Rabbi Berel Lazar, one of Russia's two chief

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

s, and the man for whom a Russian security source has claimed was the intended victim. Lazar arranged for her to be flown to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

for further treatment, for which various Jewish organisations offered to provide money. In Israel, Sapunova received further treatment for burns and eye damage.

References

"NCSJ Rejects Police Explanation
, ''

NCSJ The National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCSEJ), formerly the National Council for Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), is an organization in the United States which advocates for the freedoms and rights of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic ...

'' (6 June 2002) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sapunova, Tatyana 1974 births Living people Recipients of the Order of Courage Russian biophysicists