Shapira, Rafael (Seraphim)

Raphael, son of Lubov and Israel, was born on 27.5.1942 in the Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel in 1972. He attended an elementary school in Kiev, USSR, and later went on to high school there. Raphael grew up in Kiev, and after completing high school, he was drafted into the Russian army and served there for three years as a liaison. After completing his military service, he worked for a year as a laborer and later began to study economics at the university in his hometown. He began his studies at the university as an economist at the rank of MA, and after he grew up, Raphael became interested in Judaism and Judaism in general, and soon began following the events of the Jewish world, especially in Israel. The first world and the end of the Second World War, he was deeply involved in researching the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Jewish people and came to the conclusion that his place was among those who fought for the rebirth of Israel and its establishment. Whose purpose is to immigrate to Israel He immigrated to Israel in 1972 and was sent to the absorption center in Carmiel where he completed his knowledge of Hebrew in the Ulpan, where he worked at the Nahariya Absorption Center and then began working as an economist at the Askar factory in Acre. shortened. After basic training, he was appointed as a rifleman, and he was assigned to reserve duty in the Guard Corps. At the end of 1973 Rafael married Esther, his girlfriend, whom he met at the absorption center. According to his army commander, during his short time in Israel, he learned to love her and saw his future and the future of his family. On February 17, 1974, in Rosh Pinna, Raphael fell in the line of duty. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Haifa. He left behind a wife, parents and three sisters. In a letter of condolence to the bereaved family, the unit commander wrote: “Raphael was a disciplined soldier, a nice and friendly young man and loved by all his friends.”