Chaya Zissel Braun was born on July 19, 2014, in Jerusalem. Her parents, Channah and Shmuel Elimelech Braun had moved to Jerusalem from Rockland County NY so that Shmuel could study in yeshiva. Channa's father Shimshon is originally from Israel and has been living in the U.S. for for 40 years; his father, Chaya Zissel's great-grandfather Rafael, was a well-known sportsman-turned-businessman and rabbi who founded Optika Halperin.
On October 22, 2014, Channa and Shmuel took their three-month old daughter to her first visit to the Kotel. They returned home via the light rail and had just disembarked at the Ammunition Hill station when a Palestinian deliberately drove his car into the crowd at the train station. Chaya flew out of her stroller and landed on the ground 10 meters away. She suffered a traumatic head wound. Although paramedics were able to resuscitate her at the scene, she died 2 hours later at Hadassah Mr. Scopus. In a strange bit of irony, Channa and Shmuel had another baby who was delivered by the same Israeli-Arab MDA paramedic who treated Chaya at Ammunition Hill last year.
