Har-Kedar, Yaniv
Son of Yehudit and Yitzhak, he was born in 1962 in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. After his parents moved to the city, he attended the Oranim elementary school in Neve Monosson. Afterward he continued his studies at the Ort Singalovski vocational high school, in electronics. Yaniv was a good student and excelled in electronics. From his youth he dreamed of continuing his studies in this field at the Technion. At the age of thirteen, he participated in competitions to discover young talents, which take place every year at the Weizmann Institute. Yaniv built an electronic safe competition and won a prize for his sophisticated model. He was energeticand loved to contribute his knowledge and help others. He devoted his leisure time to activities at the Scouts and the Magen David Adom station in Kiryat Ono, where he would travel every Friday evening. His friends at the station say that he has always been meticulous about his days of duty and worked with devotion and love. All the drivers and staff enjoyed working with him, since he knew how to instill peace and quiet around him. He was interested in what was going on at the station even when he was not on duty and you could always hear him arguing, solving problems and laughing with the crew. In every field, Yaniv operated out of a sense of responsibility and spirit of volunteerism. Despite his timid shyness, he was always at the center of things, surrounded by friends, loved by all his acquaintances and very attached to his family. Yaniv was drafted into the IDF in January 1981 and volunteered to serve in the IAF, where he spent a year in a pilot course, and when he was appointed navigator, he dismissed himself from the course and volunteered for the Golani Brigade’s bomb disposal unit. On 20 Tamuz, July 11, 1982, during an exchange of fire with Syrian and terrorist forces near the University of Beirut, his APC was hit directly and Yaniv was killed on the spot. He was laid to rest at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, leaving behind his parents and two sisters, and in a letter of condolences to the bereaved family, his commander wrote, “During the war Yaniv fought without fear and self-sacrifice and was a positive example to the other soldiers in his department. He stood out as one of the best soldiers in the unit. In light of this, we will grow more generations of fighters who will continue to defend the homeland. May his memory be blessed.” At the memorial site at the Golani Junction, a book is kept in his memory, including a collection of letters.
