Israelis mourn Yaacov Don in the Kfar Etzion cemetery in the West Bank.MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP / Getty Images
A man who once taught high school in the Greater Toronto Area was among three people killed in a terror attack that struck the West Bank on Thursday.
Rabbi Ya'acov Don, an Israeli citizen, spent four years as a teacher at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT) in the late 1990s. He was gunned down by a Palestinian in the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. The killings came amidst a renewed bout of violence in Israel and the West Bank, with Palestinian assailants launching a series of knife and car attacks aimed at Israeli civilians.
Jonny Lipczer, a friend from Israel who now lives in Toronto, described Rabbi Don as a conscientious and beloved teacher who instructed young women in the Talmud, the central book of Jewish rabbinic law.
"When he'd walk into the room, everyone would smile, because of his smile," said Mr. Lipczer. "Through his smile you saw the love that he had for his students."
Rabbi Don, a father of four, taught in the Toronto area from 1996 to 2000. Media reports have put his age between 49 and 51. CHAT has two campuses, one in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, and one in northwestern Toronto.
School authorities could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Lipczer said Rabbi Don came to Canada to instill a love of Israel in young Canadian Jews.
Rabbi Don was "someone who made a huge impact on anybody he met," said Mr. Lipczer. "A great personality, a warm smile, somebody who embraced his students with love and in doing so made a tremendously positive impact on their lives."
On Thursday, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a row of cars stuck in traffic in Gush Etzion. An 18-year-old American studying in Israel, Ezra Schwartz, was also among the victims. A Palestinian man named Shadi Arafeh was also killed at the scene, according to the Jerusalem Post. The attack wounded five.
Thousands of mourners gathered in Gush Etzion for Rabbi Don's funeral on Friday, according to Israeli media reports.
Mr. Lipczer said he recently visited Poland with Rabbi Don and a group of students to see the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka. One of the students took to Facebook in the wake of the rabbi's death to remark on the cruel irony that he should of been killed for being Israeli after such a visit.
With reports from wire services