Her rabbi in her native San Diego called her “one of Israel’s martyrs for shalom, for peace.”
And the director at Jerusalem’s Pardes Institute of Religious Studies said, “Our Marla was this beautiful tree often in an arid desert of scorched relations.”
Bennett, 24, was one of seven people — five of them Americans — killed on July 31 by a bomb at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
She was well-known in the U.C. Berkeley Jewish community, as well as in her hometown, where about 1,500 people attended her funeral Monday.
When Bennett arrived at the Berkeley Bayit, a Jewish cooperative household overlooking the U.C. campus, she could barely boil water. Certain kinds of vegetables were a total mystery to her, said Rabbi Martin S. Lawson of San Diego’s Temple Emanu-El in his eulogy.
But living there had an impact. Bennett “soon became a great cook, preparing meals for her housemates and later, incredible Shabbat dinners in Jerusalem for eight to 10 people without any stress.”
In 2000, the year she graduated from U.C. Berkeley, Bennett was the first recipient of a Hillel award. Called Hineni, the award went to a student who, “whenever there was something that needed to be done, their response was ‘here I am,'” which perfectly exemplified Bennett, said Adam Weisberg, Berkeley Hillel’s executive director.
Involved in every aspect of leadership at Hillel, Bennett often celebrated Shabbat and holidays at the center, and participated in the Jewish women’s group on campus.
Hillel and Oakland’s Temple Sinai will hold a shloshim service to mark the 30-day anniversary of her burial on Tuesday, Sept. 3. Hillel will also be setting up a fund in her memory for students studying in Israel.
During another service organized by Hillel at UCLA on Tuesday, Bennett and the other victims of last week’s bombing were eulogized. About 150 attended. Many were friends of Bennett from Camp JCA Shalom in Malibu, where she had been a camper, CIT, counselor, unit head and, last summer the program director.
Some came from Jerusalem, including Debra Bach, Bennett’s roommate at Hebrew University. “She loved people. She loved Israel. She loved Jerusalem,” Bach said. “Marla gives me great hope for the Jewish people because she always gave beyond herself.”
Noting that Bennett was studying to become a Jewish educator, Weisberg remarked that any parent would be glad to have her teaching their children.
Lori Abramson, director of education at Sinai, agreed. Bennett taught fifth grade at the Reform congregation during the 1999-2000 school year, and worked as a classroom assistant before then.
Abramson called her a “bright light on this planet,” recalling that she smiled all the time. She remembered Bennett coming in for extra help on her teaching, and then a month or two later, seeing her in action in the classroom.
“I remember thinking she became a teacher,” said Abramson. “There she is, she’s doing it. She was very talented and a very gifted teacher.”
Speaking at the funeral in San Diego on Monday, Bennett’s boyfriend, Michael Simon, also recalled her gifts — and the lost potential. “This is just not the way it was supposed to be,” he said, bringing many in the packed congregation to tears.
Early last week, Michael and Linda Bennett were preparing to welcome their daughter home. She was planning to take a leave from Pardes to attend a friend’s wedding and a bar mitzvah in the United States, and to spend the High Holy Days with her family. Then she planned to return to Israel to complete a two-year program to become a Jewish day- school teacher.
Instead, friends and family bade farewell to Bennett at Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego County, where the sanctuary was tripled in size by opening a portable wall to the social hall.
Lawson, who delivered the main eulogy, called Bennett “one of Israel’s martyrs for shalom, for peace.” He was joined on the bimah by Conservative Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel and Orthodox Rabbi Danny Landes, who heads the Pardes Institute.
Flags of the United States and Israel draped Bennett’s simple pine coffin, and several wreaths of flowers lay on top.
The speakers kept the focus on her life and values. On behalf of the Bennett family and a large contingent of Pardes students and former students, Lawson recited a prayer for the recovery of Bennett’s friend and classmate Jamie Harris-Gershon, who had been in the cafeteria studying Hebrew with Bennett when the bomb went off.
Harris-Gershon had reached for her purse under the table where they were sitting an instant before the blast — an action she believes saved her from also being killed. As it was, the force of the explosion blew the shoes off her feet, singed her hair, burned parts of her body, and sent shrapnel into her stomach and intestines. Harris-Gershon somehow left the building on her own volition, badly cutting her feet on the shards of glass from the blown out windows, according to Hyim Brandes, a former Pardes student.
Simon, whom Lawson described as Bennett’s “intended,” fought to keep his own emotions in check. Exactly one week before the funeral, he had been with Bennett in Jerusalem, making plans to meet her grandmother, Flo Ackerman, and sister, Lisa, on a trip to San Diego. He had met Bennett’s parents when they visited Jerusalem in June. After the San Diego trip, the plan was for Bennett to meet Simon’s family in Long Beach.
Just a short time ago, he was shopping with Bennett in downtown Jerusalem for presents to bring home to her family in California. On the way back to her apartment, they met an elderly woman who needed help carrying her groceries. Of course, Bennett volunteered.
“I have had an opportunity to love someone with the greatest intensity,” he said.
He read a letter from Bennett, saying, “You bring so much happiness into my life…Thank you for pushing me to make good decisions. We make a good team. I love you.”
In his talk, Lawson painted a portrait of a girl-turned-woman whose joy and goodness were infectious inspirations to others.
He remembered that when she celebrating her bat mitzvah 11 years before, she was determined “to dig” beneath the Torah portion which she read.
Remarkably, in light of what happened to her in the Hebrew University cafeteria, Bennett understood that even though a person might live a holy life, and follow the mitzvot, there was no connection between doing good and avoiding harm in the physical realm, Lawson said.
He also recalled Bennett’s confirmation speech, following her first trip to Israel, with her mother. “She spoke of her love for JCA Camp Shalom, of volunteering to help others in the community as part of Jewish teachings and then she said: ‘Have you ever been somewhere with others, just thinking, this is all so right? I believe Judaism has created this feeling…in my life. Judaism is the reason I feel so close to people thousands of miles away in Jerusalem that I’ve never even met. This religion has created such a strong bond, I think it is incredible.'”
As a teenager, she was active in United Synagogue Youth. Lawson said that after one Havdallah service celebrated with fellow USYers, “Marla felt a spiritual change in her life and knew she wanted more.”
In the past two years, since Bennett returned to Israel to study in a joint program offered by the Hebrew University and the Pardes Institute, “Marla became more Jewishly observant,” Lawson said. “She would not drive on Shabbat, so this became an opportunity for Marla and her dad to take long walks together and visit as they wandered through the neighborhood.
“It is also possible that walking was far better for her and others, since I am told that for Marla, driving was not her forte.” Laughter broke through the grief of her friends, seated throughout the sanctuary.
Lawson also noted that “while living in Israel, Marla collected clothing to be distributed to poor Arabs and Jews. Her concern for the plight of the homeless stretches back to her teenage years when she fed the hungry here in San Diego at St. Vincent de Paul. Friends told me how she was a ‘take charge’ person who made you want to help her because you knew it would be fun.”
Landes, her teacher and mentor from Pardes, spoke of the biblical injunction against destroying a fruit tree, even in time of war because it provides not only nourishment, but shade and comfort.
“Our Marla was this beautiful tree often in an arid desert of scorched relations,” he said. “Everyone who knew her wished to be under those branches and there was room for all of us.”
Describing her commitment to helping others, Landes said: “It takes 4,000 years of Judaism to produce a person like this…this is what Judaism is all about!”
Terri Smooke, a special liaison to the Jewish community for Gov. Gray Davis, presented the family with a gubernatorial proclamation declaring the day of the funeral as a day of mourning for Bennett throughout California. Local dignitaries also were present, including Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and Tzvi Vapni, the deputy consul general for Israel in Los Angeles.
A large contingent of city police provided traffic control, security and protection for a congregation of mourners understandably concerned about terrorism.