Chayat, Itzik

Ben Nora and Haim. He was born on December 2, 1969 in Kibbutz Gaaton. Itzik was born a few months after the fall of his uncle, Itzik Goldenberg, during the War of Attrition and was named after him. From childhood, he had acquired a reputation for being a great mischievous man, talking incessantly and looking almost as if he took almost nothing seriously. Was always at the center of things and “demanded” to receive the attention of everyone, in a way that aroused great sympathy, but also managed to upset the people around them. Beneath this light coat he concealed a sensitive soul, and sometimes an injury, which is rarely expressed, for example, in photographs taken during his travels and in rare conversations with his family and friends. He spent much of his childhood in Chile and Panama, where the family stayed for his father’s errands. Despite his long separation from the country, he maintained close contact with his friends in Kibbutz Ga’aton, and later in Jerusalem. Itzik attended the Agron elementary school and in ninth grade moved to the Boyar. He was active in the Scouts troop in Kiryat Yovel and at the same time practiced swimming at Hapoel YMCA, completing his high school studies in Panama at the age of seventeen and then studying for a year at Florida State University, where he graduated with honors. “From a young age, Itzik was attracted to the sea, was a swimmer and even reached the fifth place in Israel in a competition he participated in on behalf of Hapoel Jerusalem YMCA. At the age of sixteen, while in Panama, he took a diving course and became friends with several Israeli visitors who did their military service in the naval commando unit. Itzik wanted very much to come to serve in the naval commando unit, but circumstances led him to a different direction. At the beginning of 1988, Itzik returned to Israel, and in February of that year he enlisted and was accepted to an aviation course. During the course he had many doubts and sometimes even considered leaving him, but in the end he fell in love with Tys and took great pleasure in the flight experiences and landscapes he saw. He was assigned to the combat helicopter course and at the end of the course, in 1990, he reached the squadron, where he became, wherever he went, the spirit of the beast and was in the “center of attention” despite being the youngest. In conversations with the family, he sometimes expressed concern that he would have to participate in activities that could harm the civilian population. During his military service, Itzik strengthened his ties with his friends from childhood, a cohesive group that has made its way together since elementary school. These friends were in fact the center of his intensive life, and on Saturdays and vacations they would meet, spend time and go on trips. In recent times, his brother, Omri, who is four years his junior, has sometimes joined him. A few months before he was killed, a love story began between him and Dana, one of the group, and they tried to play down the connection so as not to get away from the group. On vacation from the army, he and three friends went on a trip to Sinai. On the 21st of Tammuz 5771 (3.7.1991) he fell while serving while diving in the Blue Hole in Dahab with his friend Doron Hirshman. Itzik was brought to eternal rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Survived by his parents, and three brothers – Eldad, Eran and Omri.