Mordechai, son of Elisabeth and Bella, was born on January 26, 1946, in Cluj, the capital of Transylvania, Romania. He attended elementary school and high school in his hometown and then moved to Bucharest and studied there for one year at the Technion. The greatest experience of Moti’s life was undoubtedly his immigration to Israel. Since 1958, his family has struggled for six years to obtain a permit to immigrate. His childhood in Romania was Simcha and carefree. He studied like every child and even went to study at the Romanian High School of Technology. All the gates were open to him and he did not suffer discrimination because of his origin. Yet he could not rest for himself and knew all the time that his true homeland was somewhere else. When he finally received the immigration permit, no one was happier than he. After arriving in Israel in mid-July 1964, he spent six months in a studio in Kibbutz Ein Dor, in order to learn the Hebrew language. In his essay in the studio, Motti describes himself as returning to his country, after many years of wandering, and is determined to overcome all the difficulties and build his home, out of the realization that he returned to the land of his forefathers. After the end of his studies in the ulpan, he began to travel throughout the country. His thirst to know her knew no bounds. He admired the nature of the exploitation of natural resources in Israel and the pace and momentum of building new immigrants’ homes. The developed agriculture and the flourishing of the desert stunned him and he was filled with joy that he had joined his people in their new country. Soon he found his place in the country, and thanks to his good spirit and optimistic approach to life, he liked people. He loved helping others and paying attention and love to his new friends. Moti did everything with great humility, almost in hiding, so that only after his death did many feel the great loss they had lost. He was a devoted and faithful son of his family, and close ties of love and devotion were with him and his parents, and later – between him and his wife Miriam. Between these two loves, to the homeland and to the family, Moti divided his entire life. After graduating from Ulpan and traveling in Israel, he faced two choices: to continue his studies at the Technion or to fulfill his duty of service in the army. Naturally, Moti chose without hesitation the second option. Mordechai was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in mid-February 1965 and was assigned to the Armored Corps, completing basic training in Armored Corps courses and completing his basic training in the Armored Infantry. Since he was a good soldier and a resourceful fighter, he was sent, after a relatively short period of service, to a course for squad commanders. Soon his commanders were on his merits as a commander and sent to an officers’ course, but he could not finish him because he had hepatitis and had to leave the course in the middle. At the end of his regular service, he was released and began working at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv. About a year later, he married his girlfriend, Miriam, whom he knew as part of his army service, and together with him he established his home. He renewed his studies at the Technion in Haifa, but after moving to Petah Tikva, he continued to study at the Holon Institute of Technology. His relations with his parents were not severed following his marriage. He entered into a partnership with his parents in a Confucius workshop that they managed. At that time his eldest daughter, Efrat, was born. The Yom Kippur War broke out during his last year of school. During the war, Moti took part in the battles of containment and break-up in the central sector in Sinai, in the role of the NCO. In a battle that took place on October 17, 1973, his half-track was hit by a missile and he was killed, brought to rest in the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul, and left behind a wife, son, daughter and parents. The bereaved family wrote to the bereaved family: “He was an excellent soldier and a devoted friend. Mordechai was loved by everyone who knew him. “
