Dorfcouton, Yair

The youngest son of Yehuda Mordechai and Tova. He was born on 15 September 1951 in Herzliya. He studied at the Bar-Ilan elementary school in Herzliya and then completed his high school studies at the “Midreshet Noam” in Pardes Hanna. He was a member of the Bnei Akiva religious youth movement. Even when he was a student in elementary school, he was enthusiastic and interested in the land and the people. Yair learned a great deal about what happened in the country before the state, and learned very well what has happened to the Jewish people – in Israel and the Diaspora – in the last thirty-forty years: the events, the Holocaust, the underground and the war for political independence in Israel. From the dawn of his childhood he recognized the fact that he was a member of a fighting Jewish people and therefore always aspired to serve in the army. Because of his great interest in the air force (he often built model airplanes) he dreamed of being a combat pilot. From the age of Bar Mitzvah he was a member of Bamahane and other military journals. He liked to wander the country and photograph its landscapes. During his vacations, he traveled with his friends on various routes, carefully prepared, and was the initiator and organizer of picnics on the beach, or of arduous journeys in wadis and mountains. In the days leading up to his induction, he always sought a way to meet with well-known fighters in order to be inspired. He went to Meir Har-Zion and met with Ezer Weizman and with Kacha. At the beginning of November 1969 he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, and was unable to fulfill his dream of being a pilot and was assigned to the Armored Corps, where he served on the Suez Canal a few months later, during the War of Attrition. Yair’s strong and varied personality, never deterred by the most difficult tasks, always found words and a way to encourage his friends, often joining a sentry stationed in a remote and isolated position to relieve him in times of stress and danger. And he volunteered to bring the meals to the guards at distant positions, and Yair was courageous and fearless He often leaped out of the bunker to the machine-gun position and opened fire at the enemy planes, killing one of the attackers on the MiG 17. The plane fled over the canal, smoking, As he later learned, he crashed on his pilot, and after graduating from the Armored Corps course, he was promoted to the rank of commander, with the best sergeants in the unit. As a commander he demanded a lot of his soldiers and achieved what was required without raising his voice or threatening punishment. In his opinion there is no need to be overbearing to be a good commander and get results. He did not patronize his soldiers, joined them in cleaning the dishes and treated them with paternal devotion. Yair was whole with himself and his God. He was meticulous in his observance of the commandments – light and severe. There was a spiritual “father” for the religious soldiers in the unit. He did not show his religiosity, but when he spoke of the main things, he fought his mind and did not flinch. His kiddush on Saturdays also attracted the secular people in the group. His devotion and faith gave vent to poetry, and even in the harshest days of the Channel he organized public singing and breathed good spirits among the soldiers. He maintained close contact with dozens of friends and found a common language with everyone. Yair has done a great deal of good to people whose fate is bitter for them and who has instilled in them optimism and hope. He felt love for all that was created in the image of God, but he preserved most of his love for his family and for his company, with whom he made plans to build his own home. On October 21, 1971, Sgt. Yair was killed in the military section of the Herzlia Cemetery, where his friends set up a memorial in the central section of the Suez Canal