Ben Zahava and Jacob. He was born on June 5, 1985 in Netanya. Brother to Ariel, Yitzhak (Tzachi) and Dina-Odelia. Jonathan was born and raised in Netanya, the third child in a family of four. As a toddler, Jonathan was very attached to his mother and loved her especially. He was a good boy and made only his parents happy. “Even though I have three more successful children,” his mother Zahava said, “I loved him the most, because he was the third child, and he kept laughing and telling jokes and taking life easy.” Jonathan laughed even if he said the most banal thing. He was very friendly and friendly, connected to many friends. He was a calm child with very modest demands. He had never asked his parents to buy him something special and expensive, he had always made do with little. Until the age of twelve Jonathan studied at the Tachkemoni elementary school in Netanya, a mediocre student in his achievements, but with a very fine handwriting, a good and disciplined boy. During his spare time playing with his brother and his parents, his mother worked as a teacher and they would come home together at lunchtime. Jonathan also loved playing on the computer, and in the summer he preferred to go outside and play soccer. From the seventh grade he studied at the “Yad Avraham” junior high school at the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva and his school day ended late at night, when he would go home and go to sleep. He spent little time with his family compared to the time he spent with him as a child. During these stages of his studies he enjoyed himself and invested the best of his time, and as always, he was surrounded by friends. Jonathan was an artistic, creative child. He loved painting very much and participated in a painting class. When he began studying at the yeshiva, Jonathan stopped painting because of the shortness of time, which upset him. From the ninth grade he attended the “Bnei Akiva” high school yeshiva and when he finished four years of yeshiva studies he immediately wanted to enlist. His family persuaded him to visit the hesder yeshiva in Karnei Shomron and to consider this route. Following the visit, Jonathan fell in love with the yeshiva. Zehava, his mother, said: “Even when he went to sleep at a yeshiva, he would go to sleep in the beit midrash so he would not sleep too long.” He went home only once a month, but kept in constant contact with his family. During his studies at the yeshiva, he often shared his mother’s need to learn more and more. “I can finish another Shabbat and another Saturday,” he told her. One day Jonathan called his mother and said, “All I want is to be in the yeshiva, all my life. His words excited her and she said, “Sure, just be happy.” Indeed, Jonathan was happy, nothing bothered him. Jonathan is considered one of the outstanding students in the hesder yeshiva. He was righteous and did many favors with others. “He was an honest man,” his friends and acquaintances described him. “Where he could volunteer he was a volunteer,” his friends said. “Yoni was a man who always smiled, he was always willing to help, everyone’s friend, and he had no hates,” said his friend Ido Sitbon. “If two friends quarreled, he would always separate and compromise. Everyone should smile. ” According to them, he always succeeded, and all the parties came out satisfied and smiling. “Jonathan was in contact with everyone, he always wanted us to be a united people, regardless of political opinions and faith,” said Ido. He loved traveling and every time he took a bag and went to nature. In the photographs documenting the trips, his eyes are bright and he is surrounded by a lot of friends. Yoni enlisted in the IDF in July 2004 as a member of the “Sons of Yeshiva” service. He returned to the yeshiva immediately after enlistment and re-established basic training in March 2005. He was posted as he did in the Golani Brigade. His mother said he was poisoned for “Golani.” His older brothers did not serve in combat, but his father served in MelThe Yom Kippur War, and that’s what drew him to Golani. After the selection process, Yoni was chosen to serve in the 12 Barak Battalion. He loved the unit and his friends, enjoyed his service, every moment of it, and found the positive in everything. “Yoni loved military service mainly because of the mitzvah of defending the homeland and knew that it was a mission,” said his friend. He sprained his leg at the beginning of the service, but did not mention the injury to continue his combat service. “When he called, the conversations were very short,” Zehava said. “It’s all honey, Mom, you have nothing to worry about,” he would say, relaxing and cutting off. He did not speak much and rarely shared his parents with what he was going through, so they would not worry about him. And when they asked about his wellbeing he answered: “Everything is honey, everything is good.” He refrained from slander, and when they said something tragic he quickly said, “Well, do not start with this sad story.” He did not like to hear sad stories. Jonathan loved his parents and family and always made sure to help at any opportunity. Jonathan’s father, Yaakov, said that “Jonathan was a mother’s child, a quiet, shy boy who loved everyone, and the whole family was proud of him.” During his service, Jonathan was opening a holy book at every opportunity. He continued with all his might the way he had chosen it at the yeshiva. His friends in the unit testify: “Every time we read the Psalms, we said, ‘Let’s aim at the fact that we will go home tomorrow and Yoni always corrected us and said,’ Do not mean it, you will direct the Tehilim to the end of the war and the hostages return home safely. ‘” His father, Yaakov, says that during his entire service, Jonathan rarely returned home: “Every Shabbat or holiday that had to go home, he would volunteer to stay and always explained: ‘There are soldiers who are more important for them to leave the Sabbath. When he finally returned home for vacations from the army he used to go out with friends and hardly stayed home. They organized trips, traveled to the north and everywhere in the country. Yoni had friends everywhere in the country and he would go to them and visit them. The center of his life was with his friends, outside, until four in the morning. He slept a little and in the morning got up and went to another friend, “as if he kept trying to do more,” his parents said. His parents’ home had two children’s rooms. In one room his two brothers slept. In the other room his sister slept. Yoni shared the room until she was twelve, and then moved to the living room. Since he did not have a room of his own, he did not invite friends home, but went to them. He accepted the situation easily, did not demand clothing or money. His parents went shopping with him and came back empty-handed because he wanted nothing. He would ask his brother a shirt, one after another, and his parents only took money for cigarettes. He was a spiritual person, not a materialist. Jonathan kept in contact with friends from elementary school when he was a yeshiva student. Some of his friends continued with him on the same elementary course, to meetings, to the army, and some of them were with him in the battle in which he was killed. On his last vacation, after twenty-four hours, Yonatan said that Lebanon was frightening, but if he was already dead, he would prefer to die in Lebanon for sanctifying the name and protecting the homeland rather than destroying it. In retrospect, he seemed to know that his fate was sealed. On that vacation, he managed to visit a wounded friend and his grandmother whom he had not seen for a long time. Afterwards, his parents took him to the train, which was their last parting. The second Lebanon war began with the abduction of IDF soldiers by Hizbullah and the shelling of western Galilee communities, and the IDF immediately responded by launching a massive attack: “He called home and said that soldiers had been kidnapped, even before they announced the news,” said Zahava, “I warned him all the time that they would not kidnap him, because all the time there were warnings about kidnapping, and he knew that I was constantly hearing news, and I was a very anxious mother, so he called me to tell me not to be afraid.He used to call me every day to tell me that he was okay. “His teacher at the yeshiva in Karnei Shomron, Rabbi Shlomo Gabai, said that Jonathan” was a smiling, optimistic young man who never complained. See the service as an important mission. He was not afraid and believed wholeheartedly. He did not give up any action and insisted on entering Lebanon. “He was due to complete his regular service a few days before the incident and return to the third year of the Karnei Shomron hesder yeshiva, but after the fierce war in Lebanon, the commanders asked the soldiers to continue their service until the end of the war. Yonatan agreed and even told his brother in his last conversation that he was prepared to do anything to destroy the enemies of Israel, and that Jonathan was killed on the last Saturday of the war. “Before the Sabbath began at 5 pm, less than a day before he was killed, he managed to send a message to his parents that he loved them, You have nothing to worry about. I am going to return. “Zehava his mother said:” He sent us a message that he was okay on Friday, and on Saturday they came to inform us that he was dead. “On Saturday at 4:00, Jonathan was killed in a clash, (August 12, 2006), during an operation in which he took control of a house in the village of Hadatha in southern Lebanon, Yonatan Anconina was hit by a Hezbollah rocket and fell in one of the most difficult battles in the Second Lebanon War. Was buried in the military section of the Netanya cemetery and was followed by his parents, two older brothers and a younger sister. Yehonatan’s many brothers and friends loved him very much and founded a charity fund for his memory, and a Torah scroll was placed in the synagogue in Karnei Shomron in memory of Yehonatan. Tov: “At the end of the seven-year period you will hear / Simchah and Sasson became grief, / family, friends, yeshiva mourning / immediately received the evil decree. // How heroes fell, how it happened. / Yoni fell heroism / what to say and what comforted / son of Torah on earth fighting? // We are sorry for you brother Jonathan / We have lost a loyal friend. / Always surrounded by a lot of friends / they have a straight line. The constant and bright smile / Yoni had a way of life. / Perseverance in learning and whatever he / she will do in practice. // If a friend asks then it is clear that they help / trust and certainly respect parents. / ‘Take it easy’ and ‘All honey’. / June, you were a man of modesty really. “On the morning of Shabbat, the first day of the week of Parashat Ekev 5766, our friend Yonatan fell in a battle in Lebanon, and he lost his life and his entire life story.
