Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem Monday afternoon to pay their last respects to Eliyahu David Kay. Kay , a 26-year-old tour guide who immigrated to Israel from South Africa, was shot and killed in a Hamas terror attack in the Old City of Jerusalem Sunday morning , not far from the Western Wall. "Eli, you were holy in life," said Rabbi Shlomo Sobol, spiritual leader of the Shaarei Yona Menachem congregation in Modi'in. "You lived a life of meaning and idealism. You were the first from your family to make aliyah to Israel. You learned in yeshiva and enlisted with the paratroopers. You chose to share your love of Jerusalem by being a tour guide at the Western Wall." "You were also holy in death, you were murdered and sanctified God's name." "You always searched for the truth. You always thought of how you could help the Jewish people, about how you could contribute. You have left a great void in the world, an empty space of love for your people, of love for your land, of love for the Torah. We will all try to fill that huge void." Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai represented the government at the funeral, eulogizing Kay. "I came here today on behalf of the Israeli government and its ministers, my friends, to say goodbye to Eli." "The homeland, the land that he loved so much, will now receive him with great love. We say goodbye to this paratrooper, this soldier, this yeshiva student. Eli's story is a story of love. Loving the land and contributing to it."
