What does a person do when his or her friends and neighbors are being murdered by suicide bombers?

Jessica Steinberg, a freelance reporter, brought it to the world's attention through her article "Driving in the Valley of the Shadow of Death" in Fast Company Magazine in August of 2003.

The Long Island native visited Chambers Building last night to talk about her freelance reporting in Jerusalem, Israel where she has lived for the past 10 years.

Steinberg grew up in a "very Zionist" family and decided to move to Israel with the rest of her family a few years after graduating from Binghamton University.

"My beeper went off and I was called to cover a bus bombing at 8 a.m. at a busy intersection [in Israel]," she told the audience. "Later when I went to the hospital to interview some of the victims in shock and some of the families I saw my hairdresser's sister and I knew she was there in connection to the bombing."

Later that evening, she found out that her hairdresser's niece had been murdered in the bombing while she was on her way to the local pool. She was identifiable only by scraps of her bikini.

"It was then I realized that I couldn't cover bombings anymore," Steinberg said.

She didn't know that her reporting on bus-related violence in Israel wasn't over yet.

"I received an e-mail message from Fast Company Magazine and they wanted me to write about how the major bus company in Israel, Egged, could survive when its employees were being destroyed," she said. "In Israel, when you get on the bus, you always wonder in the back of your head whether you're going to be getting off the bus later that day."

Steinberg told the audience that the bus company is a significant national symbol in Israel, supplying 70 percent of the bus service in the country and carrying nearly 1 million passengers a day.

She decided to take the job, and interviewed some of the drivers who had come in close contact with the violence that destroyed 25 buses since March of 2001.

"One of the drivers I interviewed was driving his passengers one afternoon and was in the process of waving to an approaching bus driver when the oncoming bus blew up right in front of him," Steinberg said. "Another driver found a bomb in the middle of a hollowed out watermelon that was left in the back of his bus."

Steinberg's article gained world recognition.

"It was a very powerful story that earned a lot of play," she said. "I was interviewed on TV and radio and I received hundreds of e-mails."

Tuvia Abramson, executive director of Hillel, felt that Steinberg's article discussed a topic that is still an important one today.

"We are facing some of the same challenges in Iraq as they were in Israel," he said. "How do we create viable economic sources and places for people to work when the citizens are afraid of terrorist attacks occurring?"

Ross Diamond (senior-information sciences and technology) said the subject was a very relevant one.

"It's an excellent perspective that everyone here could relate to," he said. "I've talked to her before and it is interesting that someone you could know could be living this kind of lifestyle."

Vicki Korchagin (freshman-economics) said she felt that Steinberg was an expert on the topic.

"I think that she definitely knows what she's talking about," she said. "I really appreciate her coming."