Ilan, Or

Or was born on December 23, 1960 in Jerusalem, the third of four children to Chaya and Moshe. According to his father’s suggestion, he was called “Or” because he was born at the end of Chanukah. Because of his alertness and the speed of his perception, his father taught chess and played chess even before he started school. When he was in first grade, Or lighted up a simultaneous chess game with Czerniak, the chess master. When he was six years old, light from his father died of cancer. Or suffered especially, but he did very well in his studies. From a very young age he read a lot, including newspapers and books in science. Or also excelled in sports, soccer, basketball and especially in swimming and participated in marches and swimming competitions. As a child, he used to go with his mother on a trip to the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), and was especially influenced by a Bedouin recreation camp at the Tzuki David field school in Sinai. Since then Orr has been thinking about training in a field school and his last trip, from which he has not returned, was to Ein Gedi. He wanted to find a job there as a guide when he was discharged from the army. Or discovered leadership fitness. While in elementary school, he joined the Scouts troop of Rehavia. When he entered the Boyar High School, he moved to the Scouts in Kiryat Yovel, where he was a member of his classmates. In this tribe he served as a guide and battalion commander. From an early age, he participated in dance circles. With the encouragement of his older brother Yossi, he underwent a training course for folk dances, and when he was in high school, he received a certified instructor’s certificate and worked under the guidance of folk dances until he enlisted in the army. The years in the Scouts in Kiryat Yovel were the most Yaffa in Or’s life. He was involved in society and was a respected and admired guide. In January 1979, he was drafted into the IDF, and at first he tried to get accepted to the pilot, but was eventually disqualified for visual impairments, volunteering for paratroopers, taking a paramedics course, He then took command of a platoon of paratroopers and served on the northern border. In the Peace for Galilee War, he managed to move his department safely from the beginning of the war until the breakthrough to the west of Beirut, except for the shell that hit the outpost during the parking and lightly wounded several soldiers. During the last three months of his service, he was the commander of the Nahal paramilitary brigade. Or asked his commanders to reassign him to the paratroopers so that he could serve in the reserves after his release, but he did not get to it. About two weeks before his release from the IDF, he went on vacation, and two days later he arrived in Ein Gedi, where he loved to travel. The weather that day was stormy. When the night came and Or did not come back from his trip they began to look for him. His body was found on the slope of a cliff from which he had fallen. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. He left behind a mother, two brothers and a sister. After his death he was promoted to captain. He was 22 when he died. His family commemorated the establishment of an ancient agricultural site in Ein Gedi, with a kind of water and restoration of irrigation pools, farming terraces and an irrigation system.