Lahav, Avinoam

Avinoam, son of Hannah and Naftali, was born on 13 February 1939 in Ramatayim. He attended elementary school in Kfar Malal and later attended high school in Kfar Saba, where Avinoam, who was known as Avi, was an outstanding student and achieved outstanding achievements. He was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair movement and a counselor in the movement’s local branch of the movement, and Avi was a leader with leadership skills and was able to impart to his students the values ​​he believed in, He joined Kibbutz Nir-Oz and remained a kibbutz member even after he was discharged from regular army service. Avinoam was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in mid-November 1956 and moved with his comrades to the Nahal paramilitary brigade. He did agricultural training at Kibbutz Nir Oz and then successfully completed a parachuting course and a course for squad commanders. In mid-January 1959, Avi was released from regular service and assigned to a reserve unit. As a soldier in reserve duty, he was promoted to the rank of First Sergeant, and he studied water engineering at the Technion in Haifa, where he graduated with honors and joined the ranks of employees In Kibbutz Nir Oz, married his girlfriend Raphael, where his eldest son was born, and before his departure, he completed his studies towards a master’s degree, and he was a man of great joy and satisfaction in his work and loved to be with his family. He went with his family on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture to South America In the past three years of fruitful activity, he returned to Israel with his family, so that his children would start school in Israel, and he returned to South America for another period, in order to complete his mission there. On Yom Kippur, he returned to Israel and joined his unit, which took part in the battles of containment and infiltration against the Egyptians in Sinai, and after the fighting continued to serve in active reserve duty On February 14, 1974, one day after his thirty- While fulfilling his duties. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Rehovot. He left behind a wife and three sons, a father, a brother and a sister. His fall in the battle interrupted a life course of man, whose special character was the strong desire to live and derive the maximum pleasure and satisfaction from life. In the letter of condolence to the bereaved family, the unit commander wrote: “I knew Avi both as a division sergeant in the battalion and as a water engineer in the planning department of Kibbutz HaMuhad.” He did his work thoroughly and invested great effort to do it in the best possible way. His comrades-in-arms donated a special prize in his memory, which will be awarded to the winner of the competition for writing papers on “Innovations in the Design and Implementation of Irrigation Methods”.