Katz, Rami Norman
Rami, son of Milly and Max, was born on April 15, 1949 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He graduated from elementary and high school in Johannesburg, and then joined the South African army where he served in the medical corps for about a year. From his childhood he wanted to immigrate to Israel in the wake of his brother Gideon, who lived with his family in Ashkelon. Rami immigrated to Israel in February 1969 and came to the studio organized by the South African Federation in cooperation with Kibbutz Nahshon, and soon became a home in Nachshon, and his connection with the adoptive family, Arik and Shlomit, was strong and true. And the children in the kibbutz, he worked with devotion and loyalty and liked everything: Rami was by nature a sensitive and loving person, honest, conscientious and very friendly, and everyone knew him as a “caretaker” who did not evade hard work and was willing to help anyone whenever he needed help. Rami was drafted into the IDF in November 1972 and volunteered to serve in the Armored Corps. In the artillery course he became an outstanding trainee. After completing the course, an armored battalion was stationed in the Sinai and began there during training and employment. His commanders loved him and appreciated him as an outstanding soldier with a natural, calm and cool leadership ability, whose presence reassured his surroundings. In his company, old Rami and everyone saw him as a big brother, a guide and a guide. But he did not take advantage of his status and his colleagues in the unit, which he never treated arrogance or contempt, so they appreciated him and used to seek his advice as “the owner of the experience.” Although he was quiet and self-absorbed, his friends learned to know him and managed to learn a bit about his inner world. He would always love a book and even during his service in Sinai he found time to read. For long nights he would sit hunched over his books and read in the light of the candle. He kept in contact with his parents and family and with his friends in Israel and abroad, and made sure to write to them frequently and tell them about his way of life, his thoughts and plans for the future. As the days of his release from the regular army grew closer, his dreams and plans seemed more realistic, but he did not achieve them.In the Yom Kippur War, Rami served in the Suez Canal and was one of the first to take part in the battle against the Egyptians. On October 6, 1973, his tank was hit by an anti-tank missile, and Rami and Arik Nitzan (the tank commander) were killed on the spot, and for a long time he was considered missing and only after four years in November 1977 was his body returned to Israel. The military cemetery at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem left behind his parents, two brothers and two sisters, and after his fall was promoted to the rank of corporal. Cheshvan presented an exhibition in memory; members of his unit wrote songs about him; evening held in his Souvenirs Group said: “We suddenly discovered that this place is your home, have friends who do not know you. This place that is your home and made it into a home with doubts and longing. Not a home by virtue of the nature of the one born here, but a house belonging to the one who came to him and struggled for his right to live there. All the mixed feelings of those who came from afar and left behind the first and first homes – so full of love and so willing to share it … We wanted this evening not to be frozen and black, because we knew you would be angry at us. We wanted to have songs that you loved, we wanted to tell you about your intense love for us, Nachashon, the landscape, the flowers and the butterflies. we could not”.
