Metan Ovdati, 19, was killed by terrorists on April 16.
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The mayor’s near-missApril 24, 2008
Jerusalem — Nineteen-year-old Israel Defense Forces sergeant Matan Ovdati did not have to volunteer for the operation in the Gaza Strip in which he was killed last Wednesday morning.
Nor did Ovdati have to serve in a combat unit, because of his family’s financial situation in the wake of his father’s death. He had to persuade his mother, Hadassah, to sign a special release form to allow him to do so.
But that’s the way Ovdati was — always willing to do whatever he could to serve his country and his fellow soldiers.
“If I don’t go to the army for one reason and everyone comes up with another excuse, who will defend us?” a family member quoted Ovdati as saying.
Ovdati, along with two other soldiers, was killed on April 16 in an ambush in the Gaza Strip that left four other soldiers wounded.
As an example of how much of a melting pot Israel has become, one of the soldiers killed was a Russian immigrant, one was Bedouin, and Ovdati was a sabra, born and raised on Moshav Patish in the Merchavim region, which is a sister community to United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ in the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program.
A delegation representing UJC MetroWest, Merchavim, and Partnership 2000 paid a shiva call to Ovdati’s family last Friday. Hadassah Ovdati was aware of the sister-city partnership, as her son had participated in its after-school enrichment program in high school.
She described Matan as caring, quiet, and generous. “It’s hard for me to speak about him in past tense,” she said. “I feel like he is still alive. I had such hope he would come home. He always told me that everything would be all right and that I shouldn’t worry.”
Hadassah said that when Matan’s father, Rahamim, died a year and a half ago, he became a father figure for his brother, Ben, 14, and sister, Chen, 21. Matan had been due to come home from the army Wednesday afternoon to help his mother shop for a Sony PlayStation that they intended to give Ben as a birthday surprise.
Instead, Matan was buried in the military section of the cemetery in a nearby town Wednesday night.
His IDF commanders and Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i later came to the Ovdati house to pay their last respects.
Hadassah described how after his father’s death, Matan became religious and insisted on praying in a minyan every day so he could say Kaddish for him. He also made a point of coming home from the army every Friday so he could make Kiddush for his family.
At the funeral Matan’s brother learned from army officers how to tear his clothes to fulfill the religious custom of mourning.
The officers asked Ben to shovel dirt on Matan’s grave, but he refused, saying, “How could I throw dirt on my brother?”
“Normally we make eulogies for grown-ups, but you, Matanoosh, are still a child,” Matan’s uncle said in his eulogy. “Life without you will be sad. I want to thank you for all you have done for us.”
The officers tried to explain to the family what happened in the operation in which Matan and the other two soldiers were killed. Two Palestinian terrorists approached the security fence surrounding the Gaza Strip near Kibbutz Be’eri with a bomb, while another four terrorists hid behind a hill of sand.
The soldiers in the lookout saw only the two soldiers close to the fence. When Matan and 11 other soldiers were sent to confront the two terrorists, the other four shot at the soldiers and fled back to Gaza, where they are still at large. Senior IDF commanders met after the incident to learn how to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
“I always told Matan to watch over himself,” Hadassah said. “I got worried last week when I drove him to his base and I saw where he is serving. He promised me that he would come back home safe and sound.”
The mayor’s near-miss
Alon Shuster, head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, was unhurt by a barrage of rocket fire that landed nearby while he was jogging.
Alon Shuster, the mayor of an Israeli region with strong ties to New Jersey, was witness to a rocket attack as he jogged near his home at Kibbutz Mefalsim on Monday, April 21.
Shuster, the head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, was unhurt by the rocket, one of at least nine rockets and mortars fired by Gaza terrorists into southern Israel that day.
Shuster explained to reporters that he heard the “Color Red” alarm signaling an incoming missile, and then heard the boom of impact in a nearby field.
“It’s the proper Zionist response to continue jogging,” Shuster said in a wry interview with Israel radio. “We will be living, walking and running here for a lot longer than our enemies think.”
Shuster referred to comments by Hamas officials that their rockets are only aimed at soldiers.
“But they were aiming at me and the other 700 residents of my kibbutzim,” he said. “If someone thinks he can move us with Kassams, he is wrong.
The Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council is a sister community to United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ under the Partnership 2000 program.
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