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Marla Bennett, 24, had planned to visit her alma mater UC Berkeley later this month. But that plan ended with the most recent episode of violence in the Middle East. 

Bennett was killed Wednesday when a bomb exploded in the student center at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where Bennett was enrolled in a three-year graduate program. 

Four other Americans also died in the bombing which killed a total of seven students. 

Bennett was studying for finals in the campus cafeteria, expecting to fly home to San Diego after exams and then attend a wedding in Berkeley later this month, according to friends. 

“At first we didn’t think [her death] was true. I was planning on seeing her in a couple of weeks,” said Berkeley resident Lesley Said, a friend of Bennett’s who lived on the same freshman dormitory hall, in Unit 3, as her colleague. “We will miss her.” 

Bennett graduated from UC Berkeley in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Her dreams for peace in the Middle East and her strong religious convictions prompted her to move to Israel to pursue course work in Judaic studies, friends said. 

Bennett had lived in Israel for two years prior to Wednesday’s bombing. 

“A lot of the things that were important to her, like being nice to people and caring, were part of her religion,” Said said. 

“I never knew a single person that didn’t like Marla,” Said added. “She was the type of person that would always say hi to people.” 

During her four years at UC Berkeley Bennett was active at the campus Hillel, the university’s Jewish cultural center. She initiated a discussion group that focused on religious text and was involved in the Hillel’s women’s group. 

She also liked eating burritos on Telegraph Avenue at what was formerly Fabuloso’s, Said said. 

Berkeley Hillel staff could not be reached for comment. 

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl, though, made a pubic statement Thursday. 

“The fact that a member of the UC Berkeley community is among the latest victims of the continuing violence in the Middle East has left us all the more shocked and grief-stricken,” Berdahl said. 

“To Marla’s family in San Diego, and to her friends here and abroad, I offer my deepest condolences and sympathy,” he said. 

Funeral services for Bennett are scheduled for Monday in San Diego. A Berkeley memorial service is still in the planning, friends said. 

-The Associated Press contributed to this story.