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SAN DIEGO – Each time a bomb exploded in Jerusalem, Marla Bennett’s parents would fear for their 24-year-old daughter, a student at Hebrew University. But within 15 minutes she would be on the phone, assuring them she was safe. 

When Michael Bennett learned of a blast at Hebrew University, the insurance executive called his wife from his office. Linda Bennett told him not to worry. Marla would be calling soon. 

But minutes turned to hours without a phone call and fear began to unnerve the couple. After a frantic day of calls, late Wednesday night, the Bennetts’ ultimate fear became reality. 

Officials confirmed that Marla had been among the seven people, five of them Americans, killed when a remote-controlled bomb exploded in the university cafeteria. The blast occurred just two days before Marla was due to return home to San Diego. 

“There was pandemonium in the house,” Norman Greene, a family spokesman, said Thursday outside the Bennetts’ home. The family and their friends had held out hope until the end “that it didn’t happen, that she had somehow survived. That maybe she was unconscious somewhere on an operating table. 

“But it wasn’t meant to be.” 

Marla, a San Diego native and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, was wrapping up the second year of a three-year program to earn a joint graduate degree from Hebrew University and the religious school Pardes Institute, said Greene, co-publisher of the San Diego Jewish Press Heritage newspaper. Afterward, she hoped to go into education and perhaps become principal of a religious school. 

Marla’s love for Israel and concern for its future kept her there despite her fears of terror attacks as she explained her feelings in a column she wrote for the Press Heritage in May. 

“My friends and family in San Diego are right when they call and ask me to come home — it is dangerous here. I appreciate their concern. But there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now,” she wrote. 

“I have a front-row seat for the history of the Jewish people. I am a part of the struggle for Israel’s survival.” 

Marla’s interest in her religion grew after she spent her junior undergraduate year in Israel, and visited the country a half-dozen times, Greene said. She traveled widely and volunteered in Jerusalem, writing that she hoped to help “put back together all that has broken.” 

In an April e-mail message to a cousin, Fredrica Cooper of Los Angeles, Marla said: “I admit it. Israel is really scary right now. ... But I still feel so strongly about being here.” 

“I don’t know. I am confused. No, I am not confused. I know what I am doing here and I know what I believe. I am just worried. I am worried for Israel and I am worried for all of my family and loved ones in the states who have to deal with my choice to be here.” 

In the message, which Cooper shared with The Associated Press, Marla signed off by telling her cousin: “Don’t worry too much!” 

The Bennetts, active leaders in San Diego’s Jewish community, supported their daughter’s decision to study in Israel despite their constant worry. The last saw her during a visit to Israel in June. 

“Yesterday, her father said that every day he’s woken since she’s been there, he’s been in fear of this day,” Greene said. “It’s just what every parent would dread. What could be worse than losing a child?” 

The Bennetts declined to speak publicly Thursday. 

“They are just so devastated,” Greene said. 

“The only thing they hope for is peace in Israel,” he said. “They wanted me to say to you Marla wanted peace. She was idealistic enough to believe there could be peace.” 

Marla had planned to arrive in San Diego on Saturday to attend a bar mitzvah and the wedding of a college girlfriend. She intended to remain with her family for celebrations of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur next month before heading back to Israel. 

Thursday morning, somberly-dressed friends and relatives passed through the front door of the Bennetts’ home on a winding, quiet lane near San Diego State University. 

Greene said Marla’s boyfriend, Michael Simon of Long Beach, was preparing to accompany the young woman’s body home on an El Al flight Sunday. A funeral service was planned for Monday afternoon.