Silberberg, Yonatan

Yonatan, son of Zahava and Israel, was born on December 21, 1953 in Tel Aviv. He spent his early years at the Yahalom Elementary School in Ramat Gan. When he was nine years old, the family had to move to Switzerland for health reasons and lived in Zurich. Yonatan or Yoni – as his friends called him – completed his studies successfully and commented on the lives of young people, both Jewish and Christian. He was a leader in the “Ichud HaBonim” movement, a very active member of the “HaCoach” tennis club and even won the youth tennis championship. Yoni was a quiet, modest boy with pleasant and pleasant manner and a refined sense of humor. He had a developed sense of justice that did not suffer injustice and was always awake and active for the sake of justice. When he reached the age of eighteen – the age of enlistment – his longing for the country increased. All his parents’ urgings that he would complete his matriculation exams first and be drafted into the army after that, did not help. Yonatan was drafted into the Armored Corps, where he completed the following courses: Tanker NCO course, Tank gun course, tank commanders course, tank course. “Yoni quickly became” one of us. “We often tease him:” Are you mad? How do you abandon such a good life in order to settle like a Bedouin in the desert? “But Yoni was convinced of the justice of his path: This is not possible. “During the Yom Kippur War, Yoni fought as a tank noncom in the central sector of Sinai. He fought hard with his friends and, according to his friend, was very proud of the victories of the unit and confident at the end. On October 14, 1973, a missile hit a tank in June and it fell. Yoni was laid to rest on Mount Herzl. He left behind a mother, father, and brother. After his fall, he was promoted to First Sergeant. In a condolence letter to the family, his commander wrote: “During the battles of containment, the tank that Yoni commanded commanded many enemy vessels, and Yoni was an excellent commander who stuck to his mission while acknowledging the mission he had filled.”