Toronto native Scott “Chezi” Goldberg, left, was reading one of his favourite books on Egged bus 19 when a suicide bomber stood up behind him, slapped the book out of his hand and detonated the explosives he was carrying.

Goldberg, 41, was killed instantly along with 10 other victims. Fifty
were wounded, 13 seriously, in the Jan. 29, 2004, attack for which
Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a Fatah affiliate, claimed
responsibility.

Now Goldberg’s widow and seven children are suing UBS AG, a Swiss wealth management firm, for indirectly contributing to the attack.

In documents filed recently in United States District Court in eastern New York, Goldberg’s family claims that UBS AG provided financial services that benefited Hamas, contrary to U.S. law.

UBS AG has rejected the claim. Corporate spokesperson Karina Byrne said, “UBS believes the claims made in this case are without merit and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.”

The court documents allege that UBS AG provided financial services to the Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP), “a Hamas fundraising entity” that was proclaimed a “specially designated global terrorist organization” by U.S. executive order in August 2003.

Masquerading as a charity, ASP collects funds in Switzerland at mosques and Islamic centres and transfers them to Hamas-affiliated agencies, the documents allege.

U.S. President George W. Bush and the Treasury Department “publicly linked ASP’s activities… with attacks carried out by Hamas,” the court documents allege. “The bombing that injured the plaintiffs [the Goldberg family] is attributable to Hamas.”

The court documents state, “UBS transferred funds to institutions that belong to Hamas’ financial infrastructure in the [Palestinian territories], including many entities declared unlawful by the government of Israel.”

U.S. law permits victims to sue sponsors of terrorist groups. There are several cases in the U.S. Eastern District similar to the Goldberg case, the New York Post reported.

Goldberg’s wife, Karen (Shifra), and children are all American citizens, as well as citizens of Israel.

Their claim asks for unspecified damages, as well as an order declaring that UBS AG violated the U.S. Antiterrorism Act.

Carrie Devorah, one of Goldberg’s sisters, said “no amount of money is going to bring him back. No amount at all… If anything is collected, it will go to the kids.”

The Goldberg family is doing its best to support Shifra in raising her children, but they have been hit hard by the loss of their husband and father. “You have a widow left with seven children, from infancy to teenager. She relied on her husband to do everything for her,” Devorah said

A well-known psychotherapist who worked with at-risk teens, Chezi Goldberg worked at three jobs to make ends meet.

He met Shifra at a “Purim mixer” in Israel and “he immediately wanted to marry her,” Devorah said. “They were perfect. The loss of her one and only love broke and devastated all of us.”

The Goldberg family is entitled to compensation payments from the government of Israel for terrorism victims, but that doesn’t compensate for the trauma  they have suffered, Devorah continued.

Her nephew is afraid to sleep alone, and he and the other children gather in the living room, where they sleep on sofas “because they just miss their dad tremendously. My brother was larger than life.”

Prior to the suicide attack that claimed his life, Goldberg had narrowly escaped three other bombings. On the morning of his murder, he was running late, as a special bus serving the Orthodox community – notorious for its unreliability – hadn’t arrived. He decided to take the public Egged bus instead.

Devorah said her brother was sitting near the back of the bus, directly behind the bomber. He was reading a book when the bomber stood up and slapped it out of his hand. A flash of light then engulfed the bus.

“On the day he was murdered, he had back-to-back clients all day. Shifra found out when clients began calling. She remembers talking to him on the bus seconds before it happened.”

The wrecked bus, meanwhile, has had something of a second life. It was put on display in The Hague when the International Court of Justice held hearings about Israel’s West Bank barrier, which is designed to prevent terrorist bombings like the one that tore apart bus 19.

The bus was later put on display at various American universities where it was used to raise money for ZAKA, an Israeli organization that removes human remains from terrorism sites, and for Christians for Israel.

It is currently located permanently at Camp Shoresh in Adamstown, Md.