Ken-Dror, Yehuda
Son of Shlomo and Simchah. He was born on Thursday, February 8, 1935, in Jerusalem and completed his studies in elementary school, where he was a kindergarten teacher and was drafted into the IDF in December 1953. During his service, the Sinai Campaign broke out. Judah was an amazing hero – and his next act, which was his last act, would prove: the commander of his unit announced that he needed a volunteer to go into the wadi to draw the Egyptians’ fire and locate their hidden positions. Yehuda volunteered immediately and hurried out in a jeep. He flew forward without hesitation, knowing that this would save the lives of others-and all the while he drew the attention of the enemies hiding in the ridges and slopes to send him to blame for the ambush. Finally, their bullets hit his stomach, hands, and legs until his control of the wheel was lost, but the jeep continued to gallop forward until it stood still. Then Yehuda fell out of the perforated jeep and threw himself out on hard ground and the fire was still raging above him. Slowly he approached the side of the road and dug in the ditch-and at nightfall Yehuda was almost exhausted, writhing in pain in front of his comrades, who were sure that he had died on the way to kill him. However, it was not until about two months later, after a difficult struggle with death, that Yehuda took his last breath and died of his wounds on Sunday, February 1, 1957, and was brought to eternal rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. , Lieutenant General Moshe Dayan, praised him for his volunteer work, for his bravery and for his extraordinary soul-searching under a deadly fire in battle. His memory was mentioned in Uri Milstein’s book, “The Paratroop Wars.” An investigation in 2017 updated that the Chief of Staff’s citation was converted to a medal of valor.
