The remains of Nachman Daniel (Donny) Morris, the 19-year-old American yeshiva student killed in last week's disaster in Meron, were brought to Sha'alvim in central Israel Sunday evening for his funeral service.
Morris, one of three American teenagers killed in the crowd crush around midnight between Thursday night and Friday morning during Lag Ba'Omer celebrations in Meron, was a student at Yeshivat Sha'alvim in the town of Sha'alvim, having arrived in Israel from Teaneck, New Jersey last September.
Morris was in the crowd of tens of thousands that gathered at Mount Meron to mark the Lag B’Omer holiday Thursday night when massive overcrowding on an exit ramp led to the deadliest civilian disaster in Israel’s history.
“The Morris family are pillars of the Bergenfield-Teaneck community,” said a neighbor. “I have known [Nachman] since he was six. He was a rising star as a student in the Jewish world. He was a sweet boy. No one had anything negative to say about him.”
Earlier on Sunday, Rabbi Aryeh Waxman eulogized Morris, calling him "an angel".
"It's so hard to talk right now. I just want people to know that Israel has lost an angel. When he was with us, we could tell that he was an angel," Rabbi Waxman said.
The rabbi said Morris was "a guy who always had a smile on his face. Maybe you saw a picture taken a quarter of an hour before he was taken from us. You see the light inside."
"No one remembers him not smiling," Rabbi Waxman stressed. "He always a good word, was always thirsty for Torah. He was always happy with his friends. Everyone loved him."
"It is decreed from above that he is taken from us and we will continue to learn from him and with God's help we will raise the name of heaven here in the material world for the ascension of his soul and we will continue to feel his influence here in this world," he added