Obituary: Anat Rosenberg

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Anat RosenbergImage source, Other
Image caption,
Ballet was Anat's passion and what first drew her to London

Fully aware of the threat posed by suicide bombers, Anat Rosenberg was worried about visiting her native Israel.

Yet one took her life on 7 July 2005 on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square while she was talking on her phone to her boyfriend, John Falding.

He said: "The irony of all these terrible things is that she was afraid of visiting Israel because she was scared of suicide bombings on buses."

The 39-year-old charity administrator, from Finsbury Park, north London, had however been planning a trip to see her parents in Israel in the autumn.

Instead Arie, who worked in Israel's foreign ministry, and Naomi, a teacher, flew to Britain and took their daughter's body home for burial.

Anat Rosenberg was born in the Israeli coastal town of Hadera in 1965. She studied at high school in Jerusalem and completed national service with the Israeli army before training in modern dance.

Her passion was the piano and ballet and it was her plan to study dance which drew her to London in 1990.

The arts and culture in London was a constant source of enjoyment to her, especially dance, opera and theatre.

Mr Falding said almost every night she would be out taking advantage of London's cultural opportunities, at the Royal Opera House or Sadler's Wells.

Between 1994 and 1995 Anat took a course in social and community work at Hackney Community College.

A job offering wine samples to customers at Waitrose brought her into contact with Mr Falding, a retired journalist from the Financial Times, who shared many of her interests.

She joined NCH, the children's charity, in 2001 as an administrator, helping former residents of children's homes to access records or find relatives.

On the morning of the blasts, she left Mr Falding's flat in Marylebone to go to work.

The two had spent the previous evening watching Twelfth Night together in Regent's Park.

She was evacuated from the underground at Euston and boarded the bus.

Mr Falding, on the phone to her at this point, heard distant screams before the line went dead. But he said afterwards he was glad he was talking to her when it happened.

At the inquest into her death five years after the bomb attacks, he said: "She was outrageous and gorgeous.

"She was vivacious, volatile and vulnerable. She was feisty and fiery. She was intelligent with a wonderful sense of humour. But above all, she was the most loyal, loving and caring person imaginable."

And friends have fondly described her as dotty and raucous, yet intelligent, with an obsession for buying bags, jewellery and shoes.

After her death, her collection of accessories was sold off to raise money for a Jewish women's charity and a plaque to Anat now hangs in an arts centre for disadvantaged teenagers in Jerusalem.

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