Dear All,
After treating and identifying the remains of 922 IDF fallen heroes since October 7th, the IDF Rabbinate handled the identification of the final remaining IDF victim in Gaza, Hadar Goldin Hy”d, murdered and kidnapped by Hamas after the “ceasefire” of Operation Protective Edge (Tzuk Eitan) in August 2014, 11 years ago. (I was visiting Israel that summer—for some of my reflections on that war, please see here and here).
On occasion of this moment, a moment of relief, grief, and muted joy (beautiful wording is borrowed from R. Dr. Jeffrey Woolf), I am sharing a few articles about the IDF Rabbinate’s team for identifying the fallen. For reasons I’m not fully sure of myself, I did not share these when they were published.
I don’t expect anyone to read all four articles, but I do strongly encourage you to read at least one. While those on the identification teams have not sacrificed their physical lives for us, they have very much sacrificed a part of their souls for the sake of the dignity of those who did make the ultimate sacrifice. They, too, deserve for us to take a moment to appreciate their sacrifice.
1) Published in Tradition. A translation of an in-depth halakhic (Jewish law) article by Rabbi Neria Guttel on how the IDF Rabbinate identified victims whose bodies were so barbarically mutilated and burnt that even DNA identification was not possible.
https://traditiononline.org/identifying-october-7th-victims-absent-remains-or-dna-evidence/
2) Published in JNS. An article about the relatively new women’s Hevra Kadish of the IDF Rabbinate for identifying fallen female soldiers.
https://www.jns.org/efrat-nursi-doesnt-feel-like-oct-7-is-behind-her-im-still-in-it/
3) Published in JNS. An article about Rabbi Yaakov Roza, who identified victims from both the Yom Kippur War and the Simchat Torah War.
https://www.jns.org/a-time-of-healing-the-idf-rabbinates-role-in-identifying-hamass-victims/
4) Published in IJN. An article about the psychological perspective and toll on those members of the IDF Rabbinate who took part in the identification process.
https://www.ijn.com/idf-rabbinate-identification-burial-unit/
This is an important article with very significant links that deserves as wide an audience as possible as a m as a matter of Hakaras Hatov for those assigned the most difficult tasks in Israel