Mordechai Hershko

March 5, 2003 - Mordechai (Motti) Hershko, 41, of Haifa, was one of 17 people killed in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus on Moriah Boulevard in the Carmel section of Haifa.

The bus was traveling on the city's main Moriah Boulevard near the Carmel Center, on the way to Haifa University, when the blast turned the bus into a charred wreck and scattered bodies along the road. The suicide bomber, who had boarded the bus, had the bomb strapped to his body, laden with metal shrapnel in order to maximize the number of injuries. A total of 17 people were killed and 53 injured.

That morning, Motti Hershko had an interview in Karkur for a job he very much wanted, as director of an organization that runs workshops on avoiding violence. Motti decided to take Tom along and spend the day with him after the interview. The interview turned into a two and a half hour discussion of life, the universe and everything in which Tom also participated, and Mtoti was informed on the spot that he had gotten the job. Family members related that financial difficulties had recently forced his father to sell his car, which was why the two were riding the bus. They sat side by side and were killed together.

Hershko and his former wife, Ruth, had been divorced for a number of years, but he maintained close contact with his only son. Eli David, Ruth's brother, noted that the two were best friends. "In death, as in life, they were inseparable," he said. "There was a very special connection between them, an unusual connection for a father and son. They were like brothers, David and Jonathan. Motti didn't treat him like a child."

Motti's parents were Holocaust survivors from Romania who immigrated to Israel in the 1950s and opened a well-known coffee house, Pe'er, in Haifa's Hadar neighborhood. In addition to his Reiki workshops, Motti helped his father run the family business.

Mordechai and Tom Hershko were buried in Haifa. Ruth has asked that a space be saved in the cemetery next to them, so that one day she can be buried at their side. Mordechai also leaves behind his parents, Rikva and Natan Hershko, his sister Dvora David, and his second wife, Ofra Arieli.