Cashon, Shumoto
Born in the village of Shvoda, Ethiopia on January 1, 1976, two of the nine children of the family. His father had a field, where he grew various field crops, cows and sheep. Shumto assisted his father in the field work, and grazed the sheep and cows of the family. He began to study towards the title “Kas” – a judge and cleric in the Ethiopian community. In 1991, when Shomto was fifteen, the family immigrated to Israel in Operation Solomon. They were housed at the Mabu’im caravan site near Netivot. Shumto began his studies at a boarding school in Gan Yavneh. He quickly and easily learned the Hebrew language and integrated into the life of the country. The family moved to Rishon Letzion. Shumto helped his little brothers at home, supported his parents and helped them as much as possible in absorption and integration. At the beginning of November 1995, Shumtu joined the IDF and at the end of an exhausting training course became a combat soldier in the ‘Gideon’ battalion of the Golani Brigade. His commanders saw him as an excellent soldier, disciplined and dedicated, who quickly integrated into the unit despite the difficulties of language, performed his duties in the best possible way and showed a high personal level in missions under fire. In a telephone conversation with his mother, a week before the disaster, Shumtu told her that on Monday he would be home on vacation after spending a month in southern Lebanon and asked him to prepare him a lot of Ijra (an Ethiopian dish). His father told Shumto that he could no longer wait for the next vacation. On 28 August 1997, a mortal was killed as a result of a battle in the eastern sector of the security zone in southern Lebanon. Two days earlier he had gone out with his friends to the activity, and the group of fighters had spent about forty hours in an ambush in Wadi Saluki in southern Lebanon. On Thursday morning they encountered a squad of terrorists. In the ensuing battle, the fighters managed to kill several terrorists, but in a fire that broke out in the thorn field where he was wounded, he was critically wounded and rushed to Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where he fought for three days. On the day of Av 5797 (1.9.1997) Twenty-one, four soldiers were killed in the disaster: Staff Sergeant Shwartz Oshri, St.-Sgt. Shukron Roi, Staff Sergeant Zarif Oren and Sergeant Yadag Shimon. Shumto was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Rishon Letzion. Survived by his parents, two brothers, Moshe and Rami, and six sisters, Antaproko, Tali, Tamar, Yaffa, Esther and Orly. After his fall he was demoted to the rank of sergeant. Lt. Col. Nir, commander of the unit, wrote to the family: “Shumto was one of the best fighters in the company. We met him as a quiet, modest and highly motivated guy. Despite the difficult problems at home, he never complained. During the encounter, he acted heroically, using the weapons in his possession, and assisting in directing the battle helicopter. When he was evacuated from the field, after the intense fire caught him and his friends, he asked to clarify the situation of the other soldiers. “Shumetu’s parents write:” After his death it is difficult for us to function. Our house is left with a huge void, especially when we see its friends. Shomto was always a personal example of his brother, and dreamed after his release from the IDF to help his family integrate into Israeli society, but his death interrupted all his dreams.
