Thousands turned out for the the funeral processions for the eight students – including the son of American immigrants – killed in a terrorist attack on the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva.
Media reports identified the dead buried Friday as Yochai Lipschitz, 18; Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16; Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld; Neriah Cohen, 15; Roey Roth, 18; Segev Pniel Avihayil, 15; Avraham David Moses, 16; and Doron Meherete Trunoch, 26.
Moses, 16, was the son of two Americans who had moved to Israel several years ago, according to the New York Times.
His mother, Rivka Moriah, was originally from New England and his father, Naftali Moses, was from Long Island. He was buried in Gush Etzion, just inside the West Bank.
“He was a really good kid,” his stepmother, Leah Moses, who grew up in New Jersey, told the Times. “He was just an incredible blessing.”
The processions started at the yeshiva on Jerusalem’s outskirts, where the yeshiva’s director, Rabbi Ya’akov Shapira, delivered a eulogy charging the government with failing to deliver strong leadership and face down a deadly enemy.
He called for a “good leadership, a stronger leadership, a more believing leadership” and said: “The murderer did not want to kill these people in particular, but everyone living in the holy city of Jerusalem.”
The yeshiva is identified with the settler movement and a number of the victims came from settlements. Processions continued to victims’ hometowns.
The attacker, reportedly a former driver for the yeshiva, came from Jebel Mukaber, a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem. He walked into the cafeteria late Thursday evening and opened fire before being gunned down in retaliatory fire.
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