Yeshiva to honor fallen haredi soldiers

Students at the Modi'in Hesder Yeshiva will visit the graves of dozens of fallen haredi soldiers on Remembrance Day.

By JEREMY SHARON
Haredi combat soldiers 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Haredi combat soldiers 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Students of the Modi’in Hesder Yeshiva will visit the graves of dozens of fallen haredi soldiers on Monday to say the kaddish mourner’s prayer in the absence of anyone else prepared to do so on Remembrance Day.
Staff at the yeshiva recently discovered that dozens of haredi soldiers who were killed while serving their country were not buried in military ceremonies but in civilian cemeteries.
Additionally, the families of these soldiers do not visit their graves on Remembrance Day, although it is understood that the anniversary of their deaths is marked according to Jewish tradition.
The Modi’in Hesder Yeshiva, which emphasizes social responsibility in its programs, decided this year that students, together with the dean and teachers at the institute, would visit the graves of such soldiers during Remembrance Day this year and say kaddish at their graves.
“For every fallen soldier there is a personal Day of Remembrance, the day he fell,” said dean of the yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald.
According to Shenvald, there are not inconsiderable numbers of fallen haredi soldiers, mostly from the first three decades of the state’s existence, whose families preferred to bury them in civilian cemeteries rather then publicize the fact that their relative was an IDF soldier.
“The ceremonies for commemorating those who fell in defense of the Land are not supposed to make a distinction between blood, party or different sectors of society,” said Shenvald.
“Through a recognition for all fallen soldiers, and through a feeling of public responsibility for the need to recognize the fallen of the haredi community, we initiated a project for visiting their graves, as representatives of the Israeli public, at civilian cemeteries.
“There we will light a candle, read from the Book of Psalms and say the kaddish mourners prayer in their memory on Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers of the IDF,” Shenvald said.
Two separate teams from the yeshiva will visit the Har Hamenuhot cemetery in Jerusalem and the Zichron Meir cemetery in Bnei Brak on Monday.
One such fallen soldier whose grave they will visit is Yitzhak, killed during operational deployment in a battle with terrorists in October 1967.
Shlomo, whose father was an Orthodox politician, was killed during the Sinai Campaign in 1956. He was buried in the civilian cemetery in Bnei Brak.