Mar 6, 2008 - Ro'i Roth, 18, of Elkana was one of eight students killed when a Palestinian terrorists infiltrated the Mercaz Harav Kook yeshiva in Jerusalem and opened fire in the crowded library.
On Thursday evening, the yeshiva students - mostly teenagers - had returned from prayers. They were about to begin a party celebrating the beginning of the month of Adar - a month of joy marked by the Purim holiday. Many of the students had gathered in the yeshiva library before the party when the terrorist opened fire, killing eight and wounding 11.
Born in Kfar Sava, Ro'is, the second of five children, grew up in Elkana to which the family had moved several years later. Ro'i's decision to study at Mercaz Harav, with its high demands, was part of a spiritual journey that began while a student at a yeshiva high school in Ramat Gan. In 11th grade Ro'i stopped studying Jujitsu, in which he already had a brown belt, because he felt it was cutting into his study time.
Ro'i's friends described him as very spiritual. "He felt very close to God, and about every problem he would say, 'That, too, is from God' and tried to understand what God wanted from him," Eyal, his roommate and friend from home, related. "He prayed long and loud and everyone in the study hall could hear his 'Amen,'" another friend from Elkana and fellow student at Mercaz Harav, Menashe Zimmerman, said. He often came late to meals, after his prayers.
Ro'i Roth was buried was the son of Orly and Yaakov Roth. In addition to his parents, he is survived by three brothers - Aryeh, Dvir and Daniel, 10 - and a sister, Maayan, 16.