American-Israeli student's funeral draws global audience

The funeral Monday in Los Angeles of an American-Israeli student was streamed in real-time on the Internet and watched by friends all over the world, including some 300 people who gathered at the Lone Soldier Center in Jerusalem and a group of Brown students at the university's Hillel Center in Rhode Island. The untimely death of Avi Schaefer, a California-born immigrant to Israel who was a freshman at Brown - spurred numerous memorial web sites as well as a foundation dedicated to continue some of the work he accomplished in his brief life.

"Though it was a funeral service, I'd rather see it as an amazing, heartfelt gathering of people from all four corners of earth, acknowledging, affirming and celebrating a life devoted to peace and humanity," Schaefer's friend Eyal Nahmias said. In the middle of the night early Friday, Schaefer opted to walk home with friends after a party rather than take a ride from a seemingly tipsy driver.

At about 1:40 A.M., near the Brown campus, a 23-year-old drunken SUV driver plowed into the students. Schaefer was taken to the hospital but shortly thereafter succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the crash.

Thousands of friends and acquaintances who knew Schaefer from school, the army or the various youth movements, advocacy groups and charities he was involved with, have joined the Web sites established in his memory. "Avi was such a special human being [who] knew how to connect with each person in his life," wrote Nir Knoller, who immigrated with Schaefer in 2006 and created the Facebook site "In Loving Memory of Avi Schaefer," which has now more than 3,650 members. Another Facebook group - called "Alliance for Avi against Drunk Drivers" - has over 1,400 members.

"His dedication to his family, his friends and his people is something to be admired by all," Knoller continued. Schaefer was very concerned about Israel and the Jewish people, Knoller told Anglo File. After the earthquake devastated Haiti, Schaefer organized a fundraiser for IsraAid, to help finance the emergency organization's rescue efforts. "One of the main tenants of Judaism, gimilut hasadim, commands us to perform acts of loving kindness," Schaefer wrote in a blog about the event the day before he died. Schaefer, who grew up in Santa Barbara and planned to return to Israel after college, served three years in the Israel Defense Forces' Nahal Brigade. As part of his service, he was a shooting instructor for local and international counter terrorism units, Knoller said. "When I first decided to come to Israel to join the army, my reason was to 'protect my country from the enemy.' Avi taught me that an enemy is someone whose story you just haven't heard yet. Avi was a man of high morals and values, always had time to listen to anybody."

Within days of his death, friends created "Seek Peace and Pursue It," a foundation aiming to "focus on Avi's goals of fostering dialogue" between Jews and Arabs. Calling him a "brilliant student," Brown President Ruth Simmons paid tribute to Schaefer in a letter to the campus community. "A young man of inordinate strength and integrity, Avi had already begun to have an impact on the Brown community," she wrote. "In his first semester he distinguished himself in courses in political thought, religious studies and Arabic."

Simmons also described him as "a passionate voice for improving Israeli-Palestinian relations" and acknowledged his work to "foster cross-cultural dialogues to help others understand better the complex politics of life in Israel." This semester, he worked with a professor to prepare a new course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she added.

Avi Schaefer is survived by his twin brother Yoav, his older brother Elisha and his younger brother Noah; his parents Laurie and Rabbi Arthur and Gross-Schaefer; and grandparents Jesse and Sylvia Gross..