From sirens to standstill, huddles to hymns, Israel on Remembrance Day is marked by a palpable closeness.
Tears splash, shoulder to shoulder, and the heartbeat of one citizen reverberates in the chest of another – whether mourning a mutual friend or a friend of a friend. In this nationwide remembrance for the family of Israel, the pain of loss is intimately, unbearably, known.
Remembrance Day in the Diaspora is much different. While unified in holding close the memory of fallen soldiers and victims of terror, Jews across states and countries are not afforded that physical closeness.
Yet, sometimes, there are remarkable threads of connection that spontaneously emerge, weaving a closeness that can be felt even from afar.
On Remembrance Day, Bella shared a social media post about Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz (44), her former teacher at SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, who fell in battle on November 10, 2023.
Friendship bound by shared loss, living legacy
Sabrina saw the photo and reached out; she knew Yossi’s story through co-authoring a forthcoming book with Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, centered on his son, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidyah Leiter (39).
Yossi and Moshe fought together, fell together, and now, rest together side by side on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl.
“What a small world,” we expressed to each other. How meaningful it felt to find our friendship bound by the imprint these two heroes made on our lives!
Yossi Hershkovitz taught Nevi’im (Book of Prophets) and Torah with a passion that brought ancient stories and teachings to life – not as history to be memorized, but a living inheritance.
He urged students to see each story as a strand in the fabric of Jewish peoplehood, that the Jewish story was enduring and called for human agency. This was something Yossi preached and practiced.
His devotion to his students was as instinctive as his devotion to his people: reviewing material until it clicked, patient and smiling through every question, and arriving at parent-teacher conferences with detailed notes on each student.
Yossi’s joy, strength, and resilience permeated every corner of school life. During games of color war, everyone wanted him on their team. His strength was unmatched; his spirit even more so.
On Remembrance Day, Yossi’s presence took on a different weight. Yossi and his wife, Hadas, organized the ceremony, selecting each song and guiding each student.
Hadas’s voice overlaid the sound Yossi drew from his violin, a sound at once a wail and something unshakably strong. The two songs they chose never left Bella. Now, she understands why they were selected.
The song “Eretz Tzvi” tells the story of Operation Thunderbolt, the 1976 rescue mission to Entebbe. “Esrim Elef Ish” was written for a lone soldier who fell in Gaza in 2014, and twenty thousand strangers attended his funeral so he wouldn’t be buried alone.
Both songs are elegies for those who loved Israel completely and paid the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.
No wonder that, like those who came before Yossi in the stories he taught, and like those Bella once sang about, he readily answered his call to serve. “Someone is calling me,” he told his beloved Hadas, “like our forefather Abraham was called.”
Moshe, too, heeded Abraham’s call. He embodied the teaching of Bamidbar Rabah, where two verses referencing Israel and Moses require one another: “Moses is Israel and Israel is Moses to teach you that the leader of the generation is the entire generation.”
A seasoned senior officer in Shaldag, IAF special forces, for over 12 years, Moshe was uniquely qualified to command the lead company of the 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion. Yossi was already a senior soldier in that company.
Like the tip of the Star of David, Moshe led his troops into battle. They fought hard for two weeks, until entering that fatal booby-trapped Hamas terror tunnel.
That explosion also took the lives of Sergey Shmerkin and Matan Meir. Amos Lapidot lost one leg; Amitai Argaman and Elisha Meidan both lost two.
At Moshe’s second memorial ceremony last November, Sabrina encountered Yossi’s father alongside the Leiter family, peering over the graves of their loved ones. Yossi’s was the next day.
In Israel, Sabrina met with Moshe’s friends, colleagues, fellow soldiers, and family members. Each impressed and moved her with stories and reflections, an extension of those that his father had placed in her care. Moshe is a friend whom Sabrina may have been too late to meet, but never too late to learn from.
Moshe Yedidya Leiter lived days that stretched beyond the clock, filling every hour with meaning, dedication, and generosity. During a lull in fighting, he knew of a hospitalized soldier, a ba’al teshuva, whose tefillin were destroyed. Moshe ensured he had a new set within four hours.
With another friend on religious ascent, Moshe would study biblical texts over coffee or beer at dawn or dusk. He never pushed teaching, and in that organic process, fostered his friend’s most genuine connection to observant Judaism.
Moshe led that way in life and in battle: never pushing, always inspiring.
And inspire Moshe did – as a son, a father of six, a brother of seven siblings, an entrepreneur, soldier, and doctor.
After witnessing Israeli medics save lives after the 2013 Philippines earthquake, Moshe resolved to become a doctor. He was slated to begin residency on October 8, 2023, but on October 7, duty called.
Moshe and Yossi took their love for family, faith, and their homeland into their fight. They would write and sing – Moshe letters, and Yossi lyrics.
Yossi entered Gaza with his violin and composed a song from Psalm 23:4, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me.” Moshe, who cherished the songs of his homeland, entered battle with those tunes and their potency.
On earth, Moshe and Yossi made music that echoed far and wide. From heaven, their melodies will eternally ripple outward. Their brotherhood, commitment, and courage are what make the jubilant day of Independence Day, following the grief-stricken Remembrance Day, possible.
This moment of discovery felt equally painful and providential. What a tragic story over which to bond, but how rich, how true it was to the essence of Jewish peoplehood.
Sabrina Soffer is an alum of George Washington University, a research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, and co-author of the forthcoming book, Of Good Courage: Israel and the West’s Fight for Moral Clarity, with Israeli Ambassador to the United States Dr. Yechiel Leiter. Follow on X: @sabrinasoff.
Bella Ingber is an alum of New York University, a paralegal at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, and a published essayist whose advocacy on campus antisemitism has been featured across major media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, and NewsNation. Follow on X: @bellaingber123.
Source:
www.jpost.com
