Pikman, Yehuda (“Yehuda”)

Son of Shmuel and Rachel. He was born on December 17, 1948 in Tel Aviv. His parents named him after his uncle, Yehuda Bitanski, one of the thirty-five who fell in Gush Etzion during the War of Independence, and after graduating from the elementary school in Tel Aviv he attended the New High School. A member of “Tzofim” and a member of the Chess and Tennis Association, he was drafted into the IDF in August 1966. During his service he rose to the rank of lieutenant. He was an orderly and experienced officer who had performed his duties to the satisfaction of all his superiors. But on September 8, 1968, he fell from a direct hit by the enemy shell while he was in the turret in the Kantara Mosque when he was the commander of the paratroopers’ observation post. He was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul. For his courage and his devotion to the target under enemy fire, Judah was commended by the commander of the Armored Corps. In the book “The War After the War,” published by the IDF’s General Staff Training and Information Branch, the battle for which he was praised is mentioned.