An American journalist who was brutally beheaded by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS was the grandson of holocaust survivors who had a passion for the Holy Land.

Steven Sotloff had moved to Israel in 2005 to report on the conditions there and the suffering of the Israeli people by the terrorist groups that surround them on all sides.  He also traveled around the middle east reporting on the problems caused by Islamic extremism on the average Arab.

Sotloff was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in August 2013 at the border between Turkey and Syria.  Two weeks ago, ISIS showed him in a video and said that they would be killing Sotloff if the U.S. did not stop air strikes against their forces.

Sotloff’s friends in Israel said that he was a passionate reporter and that he said he wanted to live life to the fullest and have “a story [he] could write a book about.”  They knew something was wrong in August 2013 when he said he was leaving on a trip for a story and immediately disappeared from social media.

“He was well aware of the risks involved in his work,” a friend identified only as Abigail told Jerusalem Online.  “In Syria he was almost killed by stray bullets fired at him.”

Sotloff was 31.