Thomas Bay Estrup is studying architecture as a TTS Sperling Scholar at the Hebrew University. Below is a letter he wrote to TTS after experiencing a terror attack at the university.

December 18, 2002

I feel very honoured to have been awarded the Thanks To Scandinavia Sperling Scholarship.

I am a Danish graduate student in Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen and am especially interested in the Archaeology of Israel. My interest was first awakened when I volunteered at the excavation at Tel Hazor in Northern Israel in 1997.

My first visit to Israel was as a volunteer on a kibbutz in 1996. During that visit I fell in love with Israel and decided to make it part of my life. I returned to Israel one year later for a year of studies at the Hebrew University. I decided then that I wanted to return to Israel in order to study for part of my Master’s Degree at Hebrew University, which is what I am doing now. The scholarship from TTS has allowed me to fulfill both a personal and an academic dream; to live and study in Jerusalem. At this point in my studies and my life there is no other place I would rather be than in Jerusalem.

My connection to Jerusalem and Israel was put to the test with the terror attack at the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria at the Hebrew University on July 30, 2002, at which I was present. I was sitting in the cafeteria drinking coffee as the bomb went off. I was less than 15 meters from the explosion and could have been killed, but nothing happened to me.

Friends and other people here were extremely supportive after it had happened. It was very heartening to feel that support. It gave me a feeling of belonging to this place.

This experience only confirmed that Jerusalem is the place where I want to live and study at the moment. So, rather than scare me away from Jerusalem , the terror attack confirmed my connection to this place. I know that this connection will last for the rest of my life. I regard Israel as my second home and will always do so. I have had some of the best times of my life in Israel and I have made some of my best friends here. Israel will always play a significant role in my academic as well as my personal life.