A 2021 Dunwoody High School graduate and a member of Israel’s border patrol police, who was killed Nov. 6 near the old city of Jerusalem, was remembered by her coaches and teachers as one of the hardest working, dedicated student-athletes they had ever met.
Sgt. Elisheva Rose Lubin, 20, the daughter of Robin and David Lubin, was killed in a stabbing attack near Herod’s Gate, according to the online publication Jewish News Syndicate. Her death was confirmed by Beth Jacob of Atlanta and the administrative staff at Dunwoody High School.
According to Israeli press, after the assault, her alleged attacker, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was shot dead by border patrol officers. Another Israeli border patrol officer was wounded in the attack. The attack came a month after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 Israelis hostage.
While attending DHS, she was the only girl on the school’s wrestling team and also played girls’ flag football. According to the school’s website, as a sophomore, Lubin made it to the finals of the girls’ state wrestling championship. Her coach, Luke McSorley, said Lubin was not just the best girl wrestler on the team, she was one of the best wrestlers on the team.
“For the majority of the year, she wrestled boys, and she won a lot,” McSorley said. “If anyone didn’t take her seriously before the match, they learned the hard way how good she was.”
McSorley said Lubin’s signature go-to was the double-leg move, which was akin to a football tackle.
“She was a hard worker and she never complained, and she encouraged other girls to join the wrestling team,” McSorley said. “She was one in a million.”
She was also a cheerleader at the school during her junior and senior years.
Her former Dunwoody cheerleading coach, Gayle Hard, called her “a rare gem” and “one of the most remarkable people” she had ever encountered in her 22 years as a coach.
“One day, Rose came to me and said, ‘I’d like to try out to be a cheerleader, but I don’t know what to do and I was hoping you would help me,’” Hard said. “There were only four days until tryouts, but she worked so hard to learn all during that week.”
The progress she made during the week, Hard said, was so impressive that she made the varsity football squad and excelled in her role as a base for the flyers.
Hard said Lubin, although diminutive, was one of the strongest girls on the squad.
She was also true to her Jewish faith, the coach remembered.
“During football season, the games were on Friday, and Rose was committed to her faith, so she wasn’t supposed to travel by car,” Hard said. “She got special permission to ride the bus to the games by her rabbi.”
After the first game, when the bus pulled into the Dunwoody High School parking lot around 11 p.m., Hard said she saw Lubin walking into the darkness, and offered to give her a ride home.
“She told me she couldn’t go in the car, and I’m was a little slow on the take and I asked, ‘Well at least, can you call me when you get home?’” Hard recalled. “She looked at me and said, ‘I’m sorry I can’t do that either.’”
That first night Hard followed Lubin home to make sure she was okay.
Hard said she was impressed with the way that Lubin dedicated herself to her faith, sometimes walking an hour to a cheerleading event and bringing her own food to group meals.
“She always said she was going to go to Israel and join the army, and by God, she did it — right after she graduated,” Hard said.
Her flag football coach at Dunwoody, Montez Swinney, said he sought out Lubin during her junior year to join the inaugural team “because I knew she was the toughest girl in the school.”
“She said she would think about it, and then she decided to join the team,” Swinney said. “I put her in as linebacker, which is one of the hardest positions to play.”
During the first game of the season against Chamblee High School, Lubin tore her ACL, putting her out for the rest of the season. Swinney said although she couldn’t play, she supported the team and worked diligently to rehab her knee so she could fulfill her dream of joining the Israel police force.
Lubin moved to Israel in August 2021 and was drafted into the force in March of the following year.
Neighbors near the Lubin home are putting up blue and white ribbons on their mailboxes to honor her sacrifice.
This article first appeared on Rough Draft Atlanta and is published here with permission
