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Denman, Chanoch (Peter)

Denman, Chanoch (Peter)


Son of Nell and Hank. He was born on April 14, 1960 in Amsterdam, Holland, and immigrated to Israel alone in 1982. Hanoch, or his former name, Peter, was the son of Christian Catholic parents. As a child, the family moved to the city of Utrecht, where he attended a Catholic primary school and even participated in a Catholic choir in the church. He graduated from the Horticultural High School. He was very alert, lively, and curious about his surroundings, about each person and idea. After graduating, he tried to get a job by profession, the teachers, but without success. He was doing odd jobs, and meanwhile he became interested in the history of World War II and the Holocaust. In April 1982 he left the Netherlands and arrived in Israel. He decided to try his luck here, but he was aware of the problems that awaited him. In one of his letters he wrote: “In a foreign country there will certainly be other problems, such as isolation from relatives and culture, foreign language, foreign customs and procedures, and personal isolation.” He chose to live in Moshav Nes Ammim, a Dutch Christian moshav near Regba. His intention was to preserve his Catholic identity. Here he worked in raising roses and soon became friendly with Jewish residents of the area, Bergba, Nahariya, Kfar Masaryk and even Jerusalem. On a Yom Kippur he stayed with a Jewish family in Jerusalem, fasted and visited the synagogue, and began thinking about moving to Judaism. He debated the problems of Jewish-Arab relations and the problems of the Christians among themselves. He found support for his hesitations with his father, who became interested in Hebrew and Jewish studies. During this period his family visited him at Nes Ammim. His father visited him in 1984, and later wrote to his family that the tendency to convert was growing stronger. When he decided to do so, he left Nes Ammim, although he continued to maintain contact with his residents, and even participated there in Prof. Flusser’s seminar on messianism. He moved to Kibbutz Tirat Zvi, worked there, and studied Judaism at Kibbutz Shluchot. In March 1985, he completed his studies in Judaism, and in August of that year his conversion process ended. He even underwent circumcision and chose the Hebrew name Hanoch. Hanoch felt love for the land and its inhabitants. He bought an apartment in Acre, started working for a commercial company in Haifa, and felt that his superiors’ assessment enabled him to stand up respectfully. In 1986 he received a new immigrant certificate. He continued to keep in close contact with his family in the Netherlands. He was drafted into the IDF in February 1987 and joined the Infantry Brigade, where he successfully completed basic training, and was transferred to the Combat Engineering Corps unit in the Golan Heights area in August 1987. In August 1987 his family arrived for a second visit to Israel. 1987. In the Kfar Masaryk area, Hanoch was wounded by terrorists, who fell in the line of duty and was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Nahariya, leaving behind his parents, three brothers and four sisters – Paul, Gabriella, Odeh, and Arthur, and his commander said these words of farewell: “Hanoch of blessed memory proved a strong desire to serve properly, which is not easy when a young man of twenty-seven, , Who served with eighteen and nineteen. ” Rabbi Tzfania Drori, who converted, told him: “I told him that being Jewish is difficult, and Hanoch replied modestly: ‘I love the Jews and Israel.'”

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