A few months ago, during her post-national service adventure in India, Hadar Buchris stayed at the Chabad House in Pushkar.
Shimshon Goldstein, Chabad’s emissary in the Rajasthan town, said that Hadar took care of his son, Shilo, and told him: “I will be a mother.”

But on Sunday, Ms Buchris, 21, was murdered by a terrorist who stabbed her in the head, chest and near her heart.

She had returned to Israel ready to pursue her love of theatre, to study Judaism, and to get academic qualifications.

Ms Buchris was waiting for a lift at a busy junction in the Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank when she was attacked. She was pronounced dead when she reached hospital, and buried in a massive funeral on Monday.

Rabbi Goldstein said: “At Chabad House she gave all of her kindliness, with her infectious smile. She would come up to me and ask if she could bake a cake, just to ‘spoil’ everyone. We are in great sorrow, and sorrow for the entire nation of Israel.”

Her death came on the heels of the deadliest day in the current two-month wave of violence. Last Thursday saw five people killed by terrorists. Three died after a Palestinian terrorist with a submachine gun opened fire on vehicles in the West Bank. The victims included Ezra Schwartz, whose murder sent shock waves through the diaspora. He was an 18-year-old from Massachusetts who was studying in an Israeli yeshivah for the year, and who was in the West Bank on a brief visit to deliver food to soldiers. Jewish teacher Yaakov Don, and a Palestinian, Shadi Arafa, were also killed. Also last Thursday, two men, Reuven Aviram and Aharon Yesayev, were murdered in Tel Aviv while attending a prayer service.

In another attack, 18-year-old Israeli soldier Ziv Mizrahi was stabbed to death after he had a minor accident while driving a military vehicle. After getting out of his vehicle to exchange information with the other driver, a Palestinian man ran up to him and knifed him.

Other attacks this week included one car-ramming, one assault that consisted of a ramming and stabbing, and four more stabbings. One of the knife attacks, in the southern city of Kiryat Gat, left four people injured, including a 13-year-old girl.