Fallen soldiers never forgotten
IDAN Goldberger almost paid the ultimate price. Fifteen years ago, on his 21st birthday, Goldberger’s name was very nearly added to the list of 23,646 soldiers who have fallen defending the State of Israel.
IDAN Goldberger almost paid the ultimate price. Fifteen years ago, on his 21st birthday, Goldberger’s name was very nearly added to the list of 23,646 soldiers who have fallen defending the State of Israel.
While performing his mandatory service, he was shot and hit in the face by a Palestinian sniper during a battle in the city of Nablus. He was severely injured.
Goldberger shared his harrowing story before 1000 people as he took to the stage of Robert Blackwood Hall for the Yom Hazikaron Ceremony for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror, organised by Zionism Victoria on Tuesday evening.
“I remember clearly the moments following the shooting,” Goldberger recounted.
“The fear in the eyes of my fellow soldiers carrying me out of the battlefield, the look of the paramedics and the doctor, the flight to the hospital and mostly the feeling of helplessness. The pain was just background noise.”
It would take more than two years of rehabilitation for Goldberger to learn how to eat and talk again.
But he was among the lucky ones.
During the ceremony, candles were lit by family members and friends of those who weren’t.
Amnon Michaeli lost his life at the age of 18 when he fought in the 1948 War of Independence. He was honoured by his sisters, Solange Rapoport and Claudine Faiman. Meanwhile, Elad, Idan and Mayan Gafin remembered their grandfather, Eliyahu Aluf, who tragically died as the result of night training during his reserve service in 1968.
Sariel Birnbaum fought in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. He was killed when his tank suffered a direct hit in the Golan Heights. His cousin, Pinchas Birnbaum, lit a candle in his memory.
Since the start of the Zionist movement in 1860, 3134 victims of terror have perished as a result of attacks – 12 in the past year.
Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a long-standing paramedic for Magen David Adom (MDA) lost his life in January. The 35-year old was killed in a shooting attack at Havat Gilad in the West Bank. MDA Victoria chairman Glynis Lipson kindled a flame in commemoration.
Between reflections and readings, the solemnity of the evening was underscored with moving musical performances by Yuval Ashkar and Julian Duband, Simon Starr, Meytar Givoni and Yarden Raz, as well as stirring vocals from Cantor Michel Laloum, Avraham Yee and Rabbi Noam Sendor.
Zionism Victoria president Sharene Hambur delivered an address on behalf Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Mark Sofer.
“[This] is a day where we think of the families of those who have sacrificed their loved ones, the families whose pain will never heal…For them, every day of the year is Yom Hazikaron.”
REBECCA DAVIS
comments