At a Boston-area synagogue Nov. 22, Ezra Schwartz was remembered for his unbridled joy and passion for life, his deep and ever-widening circle of friends, and his athletic prowess as a champion baseball player and adventure-seeking skier.
The sanctuary of Temple Sinai in Sharon, Massachusetts, was filled to capacity, with an estimated 1,000 mourners sitting and standing. Hundreds more stood on the synagogue grounds outside to hear about the “great life” of Schwartz, the 18-year-old American yeshiva student who was killed in a terrorist attack in the West Bank on Nov. 19.
More than 7,000 people from around the world also viewed the service as it was streamed over the Internet. After the funeral, the mourners walked to the nearby cemetery for Schwartz’s burial.
The previous night, hundreds attended a memorial ceremony for Schwartz at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv before his body was repatriated to Boston.
“His life is a meaningful life. His death is a meaningful death,” Rabbi Meir Sendor of Young Israel of Sharon, the Schwartz family’s synagogue, said at the funeral.
A graduate of the Modern Orthodox Maimonides School in Boston, Ezra was spending a gap year studying at Yeshivat Ashreinu in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. He was planning to attend Rutgers University in the fall.
According to the Ashreinu faculty, Schwartz and five classmates had gone to the Etzion bloc, south of Jerusalem, to beautify a nature reserve dedicated to the three Jewish teens kidnapped and killed by terrorists last year. A terrorist, reportedly a Palestinian, opened fire on them, killing Schwartz and wounding his classmates.
Two others were killed in the attack: Yaakov Don, 51, a teacher from nearby Alon Shvut, and Shadi Arfah, a 24-year-old Palestinian from Hebron.
Speaking at the funeral, Sendor said that Schwartz’s physical strength was paired with his strength in caring for and protecting others. At Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire, where Schwartz was a counselor, he relished his role.
“He had great patience with younger children,” who adored him, Sendor said.
Ezra was the second oldest of five children born to Ari and Ruth Schwartz, who both spoke at the service. Each of his siblings — Molly, Hillel, Elon and Avi — also shared remembrances. So did his grandparents, Mark and Heni Schwartz. Schwartz is also survived by his other grandparents, Alan and Laurie Senecal.
“He had a great life,” Ari Schwartz said. “We are proud of who he was. He had 18 great years. That is how we will remember him. Ezra had a wonderful life and he died a happy person, and that is more important than anything else.”
Ari Schwartz expressed gratitude to the Jewish community and thanked the U.S. and Israeli governments for their assistance and condolence calls.
“It made us feel Ezra was important,” he said.
The New England Patriots held a moment of silence for Schwartz on Nov. 23 prior to their “Monday Night Football” game against the Buffalo Bills.
An image of Schwartz wearing a Patriots jersey was shown on the large video screens at the stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts — a town over from his hometown of Sharon.
The introduction to the moment of silence before the nationally televised game did not say that Schwartz had been studying in Israel, just that he was killed while studying abroad.
“In a month when the NFL salutes the service of our brave men and women in the armed services, we also pause to remember the many who have recently lost their lives in senseless terrorist attacks abroad. Last Thursday this reality struck close to home,” the announcer said, before speaking about Schwartz.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is Jewish, stood at attention on the sidelines during the tribute.
At Schwartz’s funeral, friends and family described him as a loyal Patriots fan who proudly wore the team’s jerseys and caps. “We will never forget his sense of humor and his love for sports,” his father said.