JERUSALEM—Amid overcast skies and the cold biting winds of a winter sandstorm, 1,500 mourners joined Natan Meir and his six children at the Har Hamenuchot cemetery as Dafna Meir, 39, was laid to rest a day after being murdered by a terrorist at her home in the town of Otniel.

“I didn’t just lose a mother, I lost my best friend,” wept her eldest daughter, Renana, 17. “It’s hard for me to think we won’t laugh together or fight anymore, that you won’t accompany me to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] induction center, down the aisle and to the maternity ward.”

“I’m sorry that in your hardest moment I was unable to help you,” she continued. Friends noted that Renana witnessed the attack and called for help as her mother was repeatedly stabbed fighting off the terrorist in an effort to stop him from hurting her children.

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Meir, who worked as a nurse and premarital counselor, confronted her attacker at the entrance to her home soon after sundown on Sunday. Friends said that Renana’s screams helped scare him off. The terrorist remained at large at the time of the funeral.

Natan Meir spoke briefly with his children at his side. “You left me with six treasures; I will keep them safe for you,” he promised her and their children: Renana; Akiva, 15; Ahava, 10; Noa, 11; Yair, 6; and Yaniv, 4.

Israel’s two chief rabbis—Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef and Rabbi David Lau—also spoke at the funeral service.

Dafna Meir
Dafna Meir

“This isn’t the first time over the past four months we’ve been here, and every time the pain starts anew,” said Rabbi Lau. “Dafna was devoted to Jews, to Arabs, to everyone.”

“Master of the Universe!” cried out the chief rabbi. “You said we should not take a mother [bird]upon her young, (Deut. 22:6)and here a mother was taken in front of her children!”

More than 1,500 people attended the funeral in Jerusalem. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
More than 1,500 people attended the funeral in Jerusalem. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Mourners gathered at Har Hamenuchot cemetery. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Mourners gathered at Har Hamenuchot cemetery. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)