Heiman Yosef (Yossi)

Son of Aryeh and Nitza. Was born on the 26th of Tevet, January 8, 1947, in Sha’ar Hagolan. He studied at the Sha’ar Hagolan elementary school, and after graduating, he studied at the “Kinrot” school in Beit Zera. At an early age, he devoted himself to sports. He belonged to the Hashomer Hatzair movement, and from the age of sixteen until his induction into the IDF, was a counselor at the “Hashomer Hatzair” facility in Tiberias, and in Ramatayim. He took care of them and invested all his energies in their work, and they returned to him love and admiration, as his reward. He did not do the training work in regular ways, always looking for new ideas. In his last years, he was interested in literature in general, and poetry in particular. Even after he fell, a collection of poems remained in his estate, because singing was a kind of diary for him, and he found expression in his loneliness and personality. He began his career as a pilot, and then served as a guide to Nahal commanders. He aspired to take part in a combat operation, and after several years succeeded in being assigned to the reconnaissance unit. On the 22nd of Tishrei, October 14, 1968, he fell in the line of duty. He was laid to rest in the Sha’ar Hagolan cemetery. On the first anniversary of his fall, Kibbutz Sha’ar Hagolan published a booklet in his name. The commander of the unit wrote to his parents, in a letter of condolences: “I only knew him for a short period of time, and I felt like I had known Yossi for decades.” Yossi symbolized the image of proud youth, youth in whose heart was a raging affinity to our security problems.