Ezra Schwartz, center, with friends, was remembered by one as a “fun person to hang out with, very charismatic.” (Geoffrey Cahr)
(JTA) — Ezra Schwartz, the American yeshiva student killed in a West Bank shooting, was remembered as “a fun person to hang out with, very charismatic.”
Schwartz, 18, of Sharon, Massachusetts, was one of three people killed Thursday near the settlement of Alon Shvut. He reportedly was studying for a year at Yeshivat Ashreinu in Beit Shemesh.
He was a recent graduate of the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, and had been a counselor at Camp Yavneh, a Jewish summer camp in Northwood, New Hampshire.
At least one attacker, reported to be a Palestinian, shot into a minivan full of people as well as another car near a traffic junction, then rammed his car into several other cars and bystanders, according to reports. One shooter reportedly exited his car and was shot and injured by security forces.
Schwartz, the second of five children, is the son of Ari and Ruth Schwartz.
Geoffrey Cahr, a friend who knew Schwartz from camp, made the remark about him being fun and charismatic.
“He was a great listener and super down-to-earth,” Cahr also told JTA.
One of Schwartz’s favorite pastimes was skiing, according to a family friend from Sharon.
Several friends of Schwartz who also were spending their post-high school gap year in Israel decided to fly back from Tel Aviv to Boston for the funeral. Students at Maimonides were informed of Schwartz’s killing at a school assembly on Thursday.
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