Pro-Israel social activist found dead in suspicious circumstances at San Francisco's Pacific Arabic Resources' offices

A memorial service is being held for a prominent San Francisco physician who was found dead inside the elevator shaft of the Arabic-language night-school he attended.

Dr. Daniel Kliman, 38, was believed to have fallen down the elevator shaft on Tuesday evening 11/25/08, on the same day as the Mumbai terror attacks. The memorial service will be held on Sunday, Dec 14, at 7:30 pm at the Beth Jacob Congregation, 3778 Park Blvd., Oakland.

There were no classes the week of 25 November. There were very few people in the building at the time. The defective elevator was "secure". It is still unclear how this happened. The S.F. Gate reports:

Brad Bernheim, the building manager, said the elevator was not working last week and had been secured so that no one could enter it. Workers showed up Monday to repair the elevator and discovered the body.

Last Tuesday, a surveillance camera recorded Kliman waiting for the elevator in the lobby. It wasn't clear, however, how he ended up in the elevator shaft or whether he fell from that floor or higher, Bernheim said.
He said the victim was a student at the Pacific Arabic Resources School on the seventh floor of the building. He said there were no classes last week.

"I don't know why he was there. That's what we're investigating, how he got down there," Bernheim said. "Yeah, it's strange. You don't normally find bodies in the elevator shafts."

Kliman was scheduled to fly to Israel on Thanksgiving Day as part of the Honest Reporting Mission, a pro-Israel media initiative.

"He was the public face of grass-roots Israel advocacy in the San Francisco Bay area," said Mike Harris, his colleague at Voice for Israel. "He was passionate about standing up for Israel, literally -- standing up in public with flags and signs."

Kliman, also known as a fervent environmentalist, often was seen bicycling around the Bay Area instead of taking rides to reduce his carbon footprint, friends said.

Harris told the Chronicle he knew of no specific threats against Kliman, but he had been assaulted before at a pro-Israel rally. Kliman's body was buried in his hometown of Schenectady, N.Y.

A memorial service being held for Dan on Sunday, Dec 14, 7:30pm at the Beth Jacob Congregation, 3778 Park Blvd., Oakland.  The blog, Zombietime, has ongoing coverage of the controversial investigation of the circumstances surrounding Dr. Kliman's death. (photo by Dan Kliman of anti-Israel demonstrators; Courtesy: Zombietime)