Cohen, Moshe
Moshe, son of Bea and Zaken, was born on the 26th of Iyar 5705 (13.5.1950) in Ashkelon. His first days of childhood were spent in Moshav Barkia near Ashkelon, where his parents wandered from Jerusalem to establish a new settlement in Israel. Moshe was the first baby born in the kibbutz, and during his first six years he received a religious education there. When his family settled in Ashkelon, he began studying at the Rambam Elementary School and completed his high school studies at the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva of Or Etzion in Shfir. He began to be his own master to the extent that one could be master of his way of life. Moses always knew what he wanted and wanted what he did. Moshe was a member of the Bnei Akiva youth movement and excelled in the field of sport, where he worked in light athletics, participated in the Gush Etzion races, and won the Elitzur championship. And was assigned to the Armored Corps. As a yeshiva student, he could serve as a religious symbol, but he decided to contribute to the IDF – physically and spiritually – and volunteered to serve in the Armored Corps, where he took a tank course, a tank artillery course, a tank tank course, and a tank commander course. Finally, he was placed in the ranks of the illustrious L Company, which fought the War of Attrition from beginning to end. Moshe, who stood out as a soldier and an excellent commander, received a certificate of excellence from then-President Zalman Shazar, and was also one of the outstanding soldiers of the IDF in 1971. In late August 1971 Moshe completed compulsory service and began studying at the Hebrew University pre-academic program In Jerusalem, where Moshe’s desire and ability to advance and succeed were revealed, and his grades were among the highest, and he also managed to work during his studies in order to finance the continuation of the Yom Kippur War. His comrades went through the most difficult and bitter battles of the war, and according to the unit’s testimony: “Moshe did not know how to shoot two shells On purpose. Every enemy tank that was hit in the sights was hit by a first shell. Moshe was a hero of war until the last moment. “On October 21, 1973, the brigade attacked the Second Army in the area of Misuri, southeast of Ismailia and north-east of the Great Bitter Lake, in an attack repulsed by the Egyptians His company was captured in a missile ambush, and all the company’s armored vehicles were hit one by one: Moshe managed to get out of the damaged tank and move to a second tank, and when he was hit he moved to a third tank. The enemy, who stormed him and his friends, was hit by enemy fire and fell to eternal rest on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, leaving behind his parents, three brothers and two sisters. In a letter of condolence to the bereaved family, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan wrote: “Moshe was a devoted soldier and a loyal friend. He was loved by everyone he knew. “In his memory, the family wrote a Torah scroll that was placed in the Maimonides synagogue in Ashkelon and from there was transferred to the Torat Moshe synagogue, named after Moshe, in the new residence of his parents in Barnea-Ashkelon.
