SAN DIEGO -- A 24-year-old San Diego woman killed last week in a bombing at Jerusalem's Hebrew University was remembered Monday for her commitment to the cause of peace in the conflict that took her life.

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Bennett Showed All Signs Of A Great Leader

Marla Bennett, who hoped to become a cantor, was scheduled to return to San Diego on Friday.

Instead, more than 1,000 people packed the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Carlos to say goodbye. Her boyfriend and others honored her in the presence of a coffin draped with American and Israeli flags.

"How could it happen that a person of such goodness could be taken from us before her life's work was complete?" asked Rabbi Martin Lawson of Temple Emanu-El.

She was so intent on making the Israel region a more peaceful place that she paid little heed to the dangers of being there, her loved ones said.

Monday's funeral was marked by extra security, including a heavy police presence. A bomb sweep was conducted ahead of time.

Bennett was one of seven people, including five Americans, killed in an explosion last Wednesday in a cafeteria at the Frank Sinatra International Student Center.

The militant Palestinian group Hamas claimed responsibility for the blast.

"She was sweet and smart and beautiful, and had many, many friends. She was kind and completely nonviolent," said Marla Bennett's mother, Linda.

Two memorial funds were set up in Bennett's honor, said family spokesman Don Harrison:

Temple Emanu-El Student-Israel Travel Study Program
6299 Capri Drive

Marla Bennett Israel Social Service Fund
4950 Murphy Canyon Road

Bennett was doing graduate work in Judaic Studies at the Pardes Institute and Hebrew University.

"Marla was incredibly bright, top of her class," Norman Greene told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "She was extremely outgoing, bubbling young lady, very seriously involved in investigating her Judaism. She was interested in human beings and finding a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict."

Bennett, a graduate of Patrick Henry High School, was in the second year of a three-year master's program in Judaic studies and was at the university to take an end-of-the-semester exam in a Hebrew-language class.

Bennett's parents had worried about her, but the young woman, described by one friend as proud of being a Jew, had often expressed her love for the country.

"My friend and family in San Diego are right when they call and ask me to come home," she wrote in a recent column for the San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage. "I appreciate their concern. But there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now.

"I have a front-row seat for the history of the Jewish people. I am part of the struggle for Israel's survival. Paying for my groceries is the same as contributing money to my favorite cause."

About 23,000 students attend Hebrew University, including about 1,700 Arabs.

The blast -- it was remotely detonated by a mobile telephone -- was the deadliest since back-to-back bombings on July 18 and 19, when 26 Israelis were killed in suicide attacks.