APRIL. 28, 2020 • YOM HAZIKARON Honoring Our Heroes A “lone soldier” is a soldier in the IDF with no family in Israel to support him or her: a new immigrant, a volunteer from abroad, an orphan or an individual from a broken home. Definition- Lone Soldier Center #HONORINGTHEM #ISRAELDAYS LEARN ABOUT 4 OF OUR HEROES Bios and photos included How does this PRINT/DOWNLOAD THE Work? #HONORINGTHEM HEART If you have the ability- print the heart, decorate and honor a soldier SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Printed? Take a selfie with your decorated heart, include in your posts April 28, 2020 • Yom HaZikaron #HONORINGTHEM #ISRAELDAYS Can't print? Download the heart and share it as a photo on social media, include in your #HONORINGTHEM #ISRAELDAYS posts #HONORINGTHEM #ISRAELDAYS Michael Levin made Aliyah from Philadelphia in 2002 and MICHAEL LEVIN, 22 joined the Paratroopers. In the summer of 2006, while visiting his family in the US, war broke out on Israel’s northern border when Hizbollah ambushed an IDF patrol, killing five reservists and kidnapping 2 soldiers while wounded. When Israel crossed the border in an attempt to rescue them, Hizbollah began its assault on Israel, launching thousands of rockets at nothern Israel. Michael immediately cut short his vacation and returned to Israel to serve with his unit, fighting to receive permission to rejoin them in the north. Michael's unit was sent to a Hizbollah village where Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev had been taken two weeks earlier. On August 1st, Michael’s unit began an intense fire-fight with Hizbollah forces inside the village of Aita al-Shaab. Michael Levin was 22 years old when he fell fighting for the country he loved. His memory and courage live on in the thousands of lone soldiers who continue down the path Michael set– to make Aliyah, serve in the IDF, and to build a life in the land of Israel. #HONORINGTHEM #ISRAELDAYS April 28, 2020 • Yom HaZikaron Max Steinberg, 24, a sharpshooter in the Golani Brigade, was one of 13 soldiers killed during Operation Protective Edge, in heavy fighting with MAX STEINBERG, 24 Hamas in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City on July 20th, 2014. Staff Sergeant Steinberg was riding in an armored vehicle with six other members of the Golani Brigade when it was attacked by Hamas explosives. Steinberg volunteered to serve in the IDF several months after visiting Israel for the first time on a Birthright trip in 2012. By the end of his Birthright trip, he was smitten, and after a short time back in the U.S.A., decided to join the IDF, and lobbied his superiors to be placed in a combat unit. One of Steinberg's good friends Josh Grant, who like Steinberg was a lone soldier, said “He was a jobnik (slang for non- combat) for a few months”, Grant said, “but all he wanted to do was combat. They said no way, but he convinced them.... Just before the war started, we were out for the night, celebrating another friend who had finished", Grant shared, “I can’t quite believe he’s gone. To lose a friend like Max is heartbreaking. But he didn’t have a boring life, he’s done something worthwhile.” “He connected to Israel in a way he couldn’t have imagined,” said Evie Steinberg, Max's mother. "He only wanted to serve in Golani, "despite the risks of being in an elite unit". Thirty-thousand people came to Staff Sergeant Steinberg’s funeral in the military cemetary Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Most of them didn't know Max, but responded to a call out on social media to honor the lone soldier. April 28, 2020 • Yom HaZikaron Nissim Sean Carmeli, 21, was one of 13 soldiers killed during Operation Protective Edge, in heavy fighting with Hamas in the SEAN CARMELI, 21 Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City on July 20th, 2014. Carmeli made Aliya from Texas when he was 16. After graduating high school, Sean decided to attend a yeshivah, then he enlisted into the IDF where he served with honor and distinction in the Golani Brigade. Rabbi Asher Hecht said that Sean “had great energy... a kind and gentle soul...when he was called to service, he was told he didn't need to go to the front lines because of a wound on his foot. However, he insisted on accompanying his comrades into Gaza". "Sean was more connected to Judaism and Israel than I was" said is Father. "From an early age he studied Jewdaism. He attended Chabad camps in the U.S. and became a counselor. His soul was connected to Israel... His best vacation was to come to Israel... between Disney or Israel, it was to Israel... He loved the atmosphere in the country, the food and especially liked to come with me to Maccabi Haifa games..." Carmeli was a huge fan of Maccabi Haifa. After his death, the soccer team posted on its Facebook page, asking fans to come to the funeral. The team had two buses driving people back to the country’s center region, after the 11 pm funeral service. Tens of thousands of people arrived at Carmeli’s funeral to say a final goodbye to the soldier. Nissim Sean Carmeli is survived by his parents, and his sisters. Carmeli’s parents decided to move to Israel after his death. April 28, 2020 • Yom HaZikaron Mica moved to Israel from Florida in June 2017 and settled at Kibbutz MICAELA (MICA) LEVIT, 19 Kinneret. Mica took Ulpan classes and learned Hebrew before joining the IDF through the Garin Tzabar program in November, drafting into the mixed Caracal combat battalion. After setteling in her IDF unit she moved to an apartment with other lone soldiers in Hadera and was going through the army’s team leader training course. “She decided that she wanted to join the army when she was 16 years old" her mother Orit says. "She wanted to be a commander, she really did. She called me... and told me that she passed all of her fitness tests and was doing really well,” Orit said. “We knew she wasn’t going to go anywhere else in the army... She told us she wasn’t going to Israel to be a secretary, she wanted to be a fighter. We knew that if she was going, she wouldn’t do anything else.” A relative, Shlomit Levy Tsamir, wrote on Facebook that Levit was “full of motivation and excitement, she wanted to serve in a combat unit as a fighter and commander, and quickly became an outstanding soldier in Caracal”. Orit Levit described her daughter as “full of life, positive and happy,” as someone who was always encouraging and supporting her friends in times of need and the life of the party and the “glue of the group”. “She loved everyone, she never had bad word to say... She was so good to her family, never wanted us to worry, to disappoint us. She was an angel.” April 28, 2020 • Yom HaZikaron.