Today, May 8th, signifies twenty years since the killing of Koby Mandell and his friend, Yosef Ishran, two Jewish boys from Tekoa which is south of Jerusalem. The day they went missing, the boys both decided to skip school. They wanted to go hiking together.

At first their parents weren’t worried. They had thought the boys skipped school and then went to Jerusalem for a political event. However, after they weren’t back home by midnight, the parents alerted the IDF. Their bodies were found in a cave near their village. They were tied

up, stabbed, and beaten to death with rocks. The walls of the cave in which their bodies were found were smeared with their blood. Miri Cohen, a nearby sheep rancher, noted that "A rock the size of a computer rested on Kobi's smashed skull. Both bodies were covered with stones.

Blood smeared the walls, and the dirt floor was muddy with it." Their bodies were so badly mutilated that dental records had to be used to prove their identities.

After Koby's murder, his parents said they believe that the Jewish response to tragedy is to live a fuller life. So they created a foundation to provide therapy for the families of those who had been struck down by terrorism. They also host comedy shows in honor of their son,

who they say loved to tell jokes. May their memories, and the memories of all Israelis who’ve fallen to terrorism, forever be a blessing.