This Saturday night and Sunday marks the 2nd anniversary of the terrorist massacre in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem. Eight students were gunned down in the Religious Zionist flagship yeshiva’s library by an Arab terrorist from eastern Jerusalem. A memorial ceremony in two parts will be held. Five of the victims were outstanding students at the Merkaz HaRav High School, known as Yashlatz, who had come next door into the higher yeshiva's library to study in the proximity of the older students: Yochai Lipshitz, 18, of the Old City of Jerusalem Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shilo (Samaria) Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem Segev Pniel Avichayil, 15, of N'vei Daniel in Gush Etzion Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat, Gush Etzion The three others who were murdered while studying in the library were students in Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva of which the Torah text library is an integral part : Doron Mehereta, 26, an Ethiopian immigrant from Ashdod who wanted to be a rabbi in his community Ro'i Aharon Rote, 18, of Elkanah (Samaria) Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kokhav HaShachar (Samaria), a graduate of Yashlatz . Two memorial ceremonies will be held Thursday evening for the victims. One will take place at 6 PM in Yeshivat Merkaz Harav, with the participation of Israel’s Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Admor of Tolner, Merkaz Dean Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, and Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, who heads the high school. The second ceremony, also with the participation of Rabbis Shapira and Weiss, will be run by the high school students, scheduled for 8:30 PM at Jerusalem’s Yeshurun Synagogue on King George St. It will feature an array of songs and memories prepared by the students themselves for their fallen friends. Rabbi Weiss on TV Several days after the massacre, Rabbi Weiss, who lost six students in the massacre, was interviewed by usually hard-hitting TV personality Ilana Dayan - and turned the show into an experience in faith amidst crisis. Click here to read excerpts. The Arab terrorist, who was familiar with the religious-Zionist flagship yeshiva from having made deliveries there in the past, infiltrated the institution at around 8:30 PM and began shooting. In addition to the eight dead, he left another ten wounded, several of them seriously. Only after several minutes was the murderer gunned down by a part-time yeshiva student, aided by an off-duty army officer from the neighborhood. The part-time yeshiva student who first shot the terrorist, 40-year-old Yitzchak Dadon, was in the yeshiva's large study hall when he heard the shots. "Everyone left through a side door," he said, "and I left through a window, and lay down on a roof overlooking the library... When he came out, I shot him in the head twice. I saw him start to stagger, and then David Shapira [a yeshiva graduate and paratroopers officer] arrived on the scene, shot him with his M-16 rifle, and then we emptied our magazines into him." Dadon later told Arutz-7, "It was a terribly frustrating feeling, knowing he was in there shooting, but I could do nothing but wait for him to come out so that I could shoot him... “ See this report from the massacre ( warning: includes graphic photos ).
