Rabbi Mordechai Laufer

Sept 5, 2003 - Rabbi Mordechai Laufer, 27, of Netanya was one of 23 persons murdered by a suicide bomber on a No. 2 Egged bus in the capital's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood on August 19, 2003.

Laufer, critically wounded in the attack, succumbed to his injuries on September 5. The attack took place at about 9 p.m. as the bus was making its way from the Western Wall to several religious neighborhoods. The Hamas suicide bomber, apparently disguised as a religious Jew, boarded the bus and detonated his bomb shortly afterwards. Seven of those killed were children and over 130 people were wounded.

Mordechai Laufer, from the ultra-Orthodox Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in Netanya, was a scholar who spent most of his time studying. He was ordained a rabbi just a year ago. His father serves as the Rabbi of the Sanz Hassidic community in Haifa. Laufer was vacationing with his family in Jerusalem. They had gone to pray at the Western Wall. His pregnant wife and two of his children were lightly wounded in the explosion. His friend Mordechai Reinitz and 9-year-old Issachar Reinitz were also killed.

Rabbi Mordechai Laufer was buried in Netanya. He is survived by his wife and their four children.