Gavriel Hoter, 17, the youngest of four Orthodox yeshiva students shot to death by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank community of Otniel last Friday, is related to San Diego residents Arnold and Tobia Kaiser, members of Temple Emanu-El.

Coincidentally, the Kaisers' Reform congregation also includes Linda and Michael Bennett, whose daughter Marla was among those killed last July by a bomb in the cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Hoter, a resident of the Alonei Habashan community in the Golan Heights, was on kitchen duty at the seminary when gunmen burst in and started shooting. Also killed were Zvi Zieman, 18, of Reut; Pvt. Yehuda Bamberger, 20, of Karnei Shomrom, and Staff Sgt. Noam Apter, 23, of Shilo.

The four were serving Shabbat dinner to approximately 100 students at the yeshiva, located south of Hebron, at the time of the attack. Another 10 people, including six soldiers, were wounded in an ensuing gun battle in which two terrorists were killed.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred the same day that rival Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin said that his group would continue attacking Israelis. He spoke at a Gaza City soccer stadium rally marking the 15th anniversary of the terrorist organization¹s founding.

An Islamic Jihad spokesperson in Damascus, Syria, told the Al Jazeera radio station in Qatar that the yeshiva attack was meant as revenge for the slaying of Hamza Abu Roub, the organization¹s leader in Jenin, by Israeli troops the day before.

In San Diego, Tobia Kaiser said Hoter is the grandson of her first cousin, Barbara Helleiman, who divides her time among Florida, England and Israel.

Kaiser said she received an e-mail message on Sunday from family members that young Hoter, ironically, could have taken the weekend off from the yeshiva on what was called an "out-Shabbat." Instead he remained at the yeshiva to study for a physics test, and when the kitchen staff found itself short one person, he volunteered to fill the vacancy.

Just that afternoon, wrote cousin Sharon Meisels from Israel, young Hoter had been on the telephone with her son, Nathan Meisels, helping him to study for his bar mitzvah.

She added that Hoter "was always studying. His interests spanned a very wide field. He was at home not only in the religious literature but also in secular matters, ranging from physics to Harry Potter. A solid, serious quiet boy who loved nature and the Land of Israel. Gavriel had a beautiful
voice and loved singing with his brothers."

Hoter's parents are Elaine and Haim Hoter of Alonei Habashan. He has five
siblings: Shai, Sefi, Michal, Orit and Avichai.

The same Sunday that the Kaisers received the e-mail, dozens of New Yorkers staged a protest outside the Palestine Liberation Organization¹s mission at the United Nations. One of the head rabbis at the Otniel yeshiva, Yaakov Genack, grew up in Manhattan, the son of physics professor Azriel Genack of Queens College, who spoke at the rally.

Rabbi Avi Weiss, national president of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns, told the assembled protesters that for terrorists "there's no holiness of place. The terrorists attack discos, synagogues, and on Friday night, a yeshiva. There are no boundaries of persona. Every human being is fair game. You see an innocent child through a gunsight — and shoot. You come into a
yeshiva, see young men dressed in their Sabbath white — game."