Karmiel school community pays tribute to principal killed in India

Dina Hoshea died while visiting daughter on trek

By STEPHANIE RUBENSTEIN
Thirty teachers from Karmiel's Shahar School gathered on Sunday to remember Dina Hoshea, 49, the school's principal, who died in a car accident in India on Friday. Hoshea was in northern India with her husband Yaakov and son Raz, visiting her daughter Adi, who has been hiking throughout eastern Asia since October. All four family members were involved in a car accident near the northern province of Punjab, where their car overturned. Hoshea died in the accident, while the other family members sustained minor injuries. "This school is like a family, and we were all very saddened by the news," Irit Ran, Hoshea's friend and colleague, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "She was always so sensitive about everyone. All of the teachers always felt that she really cared about them, and that if something ever happened to them, they knew that they could go to her," she said. Ran spoke with Hoshea on Wednesday night, and said that she was very excited about her upcoming trip, since she had not seen her daughter for nine months. Hoshea had been principal of Shahar, a school for students with special needs, for the past two years. She garnered the respect of all of her colleagues, and created a positive and open environment for the students and faculty, Ran said. "She was warm, sensitive and had a lot of faith in the students," she added. Hoshea was very creative and had many different ideas on how to help empower the students to learn and eventually integrate into the public school system, according to Ran. "Our school is very small, about 70 pupils, so it is an intimate environment," she said. "She loved [the students] and they could come to her with anything - everything was very open." Shahar is currently on summer break, but will be reopening on Monday for the students, enabling teachers to speak directly with them about the loss of their principal. The school called all of the student's families to tell them the news. "I can remember that if anything ever happened to anyone, [Hoshea] would always be the first to call and make sure everything was all right," Ran said. "She was very connected to everyone." Hoshea's remains are still in the process of being brought to Israel, where a funeral is tentatively planned for Tuesday. Her family was still in shock and not able to comment.