Pro-Israel Activist and Friend Dan Kilman Will Be Missed On Oakland's Grand Avenue And In The Bay Area

If you remember a year ago in November, I went out with my video camera and talked to two groups: SF Women in Black and SF Voice for Israel. If you shop at the Oakland Farmers Market, you remember a man carrying a large Israeli flag in front of the Grand Lake Theater. That man was Dan Kilman.

This is that video series:

Part One:








Part Two

Well, the person in the video with the beard is one I came to call a friend; this a key part of Oakland culture, died recently. He supposedly died from falling down an elevator shaft after trying to climb out of a car stuck between floors. According to the website for "SF Voice for Israel" and where Dan was an active member, Kilman was found dead on December 1st at the bottom of an elevator shaft in a building located at 55 New Montgomery Street in San
Francisco called the Sharon Building.  

But some think fowl-play in the form of a hate crime had been committed. Red County reports that Kilman had been assaulted by anti-Israel activists before.

Some have made an issue of the fact that Dan was Gay and that perhaps his orientation played a role in his death. I don't think so.  When I met Dan to do the video above, he didn't reveal that he was Gay at all, in fact he was with a woman and a small boy he seemed to tend to with great care, so I assumed he and she were married -- they certainly acted that way -- and I didn't think twice about it (but then I don't know what to look for in those matters anyway).  I later asked Dan about that and he said she was a friend.  The point is Dan didn't wear his sexual orientation on his sleave, that was reserved for his pro-Israel stance. 
  

The investigations under way center on the strong chance Dan's death was a hate crime, a case of antisemitism.  More on this later. 

There's a memorial planned for Dan at this adress:

Please join us Sun, Dec 14, 7:30 PM at
Beth Jacob Congregation
3778 Park Blvd
Oakland, CA 94610

email:  office@BethJacobOakland.org

There's also a Facebook page dedicated to Dan here:  Dan Kilman Memorial on Facebook