Nava Applebaum - Biography

Biography

Nava Applebaum was the eldest daughter of David and Debra Applebaum, the third of six children. Her father, David Applebaum, was a prominent emergency room doctor well known for work on methods for assisting suicide bombing victims. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Chicago, Illinois, as a teenager. After being ordained as a rabbi, he attended Northwestern University and graduated with a Masters in Biology, before attending the University of Toledo Medical Center. He moved to Israel in 1982, and traveled back at times to practice in the United States.

David's daughter Nava was born in Cleveland, Ohio. The family later moved to Israel, where David became chief of the emergency room and trauma services at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and Nava graduated from Horev Girls High School. Applebaum first met her fiancé, Chanan Sand, when she was 17 and he was 16, at an Ezra religious youth group, where they both served as youth group advisers. A year later they were engaged, but delayed their wedding for two years. As part of her two-year Sherut Leumi service (alternative national service), Applebaum worked with children with cancer. She planned on studying chemistry or genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her goal was to find a cure for cancer.

Sand and Applebaum scheduled their wedding for September 10, 2003, in Ramat Rachel, a kibbutz south of Jerusalem.