Hovan, Doron

Doron, son of Paulina and Natan, was born on July 31, 1954 in Jassy, ​​Romania, and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1963. He completed his studies at the Zevuloni elementary school in Rekhasim, near Kfar Hasidim, and later attended the vocational school of the Israel Electric Corporation in Haifa. Doron was an outstanding student at the elementary school in his hometown of Iasi, Romania, and in the school he attended after the family immigrated to Israel. He was an amateur athlete and active in the Gadna during all his years of studies at the electric company’s vocational school, and Doron was a modest and talented young man who was always willing to help with advice and action for everyone in need. To help his father support the family Doron was drafted into the IDF in early 1972 and assigned to the Engineering Corps. He took a Nahal Brigade course and a platoon course in combat engineering and served in combat units in the corps. He was a dedicated and disciplined soldier and a model friend, loved by his friends and commanders. In the Yom Kippur War, Doron was a soldier in a mediation battalion who was tasked with building bridges on the Suez Canal and securing the passage of forces to the West Bank of the Canal. He was hit and killed in the shelling of the bridges, on the 26th of Tishrei 5734 (22.10.1973), seven minutes before the cease-fire on the Suez Canal front came into effect. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Rekhasim, near Kfar Hasidim. Survived by his parents and brother. After his fall, he was promoted to corporal. In a letter of condolence to the bereaved family, his commander wrote that Doron had fallen while doing his job in building the bridges, and that he was one of the outstanding soldiers in his company, participated in various operations during the war and in all of them excelled; Defense Minister Moshe Dayan wrote to the family that Doron was a devoted soldier and a loyal friend. His parents donated to his memory a lamp placed in the “She’erit HaPleita” synagogue in Rechasim.