Simon, Daniel

Son of Tzipi and Amitai, brother of David and Hadas. He was born on the eighth day of Hanukkah, on the 12th of Tevet 5728 (12.12.1977), at the Kirya Hospital in Tel Aviv, where he moved to live in Herzliya, where Daniel grew up and grew up. He lived with his grandparents at the Hadasim Youth Village and was very influenced by his closeness to nature, and since then he has always enjoyed the open spaces and the intense love for Israel, the green landscapes and the animals. And he began to ride with him … Daniel was a blond boy with blue eyes, a child of fun, of nature and of the sea, an active child, an initiator, a child who says what he thinks even if it is not ” “Amnon used to take him to Avishai Shapira’s pastry shop, and between Daniel and Abishai a profound and astonishing friendship developed that continued until the day of his death, and in fact, from the age of ten, Daniel worked in a pastry shop in folding cartons , While he was conducting conversations with Avishai, and in exchange for his work, he enjoyed the wonderful cakes … Daniel began his studies at the Brenner elementary school, and the teachers, like the teachers before them, could not control him. Anything that seeks an answer to every question, and very quickly, the one that has one. “Sometimes,” admits his mother, Tzipi, “it was hard to accept him, a blond, blue-eyed man, living on a planet of his own, and he would say the right things – and that was hard …” He knows that in some tests he got good grades simply because he wrote a lot, and the teachers were unable to read and understand the text, and they assumed that since he was talking too much in the class and liked to argue, argue and demonstrate his knowledge and intellect, he must know the material. “Daniel was not one of the herd, and did not try to be. “As a geek who once a week goes to study in the gifted class at Shmuel HaNagid and then the class is twice as quiet without him, he was quite radical without breaking things and making switz, he did not fight too much for his position in society, To get into other circles that may not have winked at him or accepted him, but there were also many circles … “In the fifth grade, Daniel joined the Mahanot Ha’olim youth movement and soon became addicted to its activities. When he joined the gifted class, he formed a group of friends and dragged them to the movement. His friend continues to tell: “… And if Daniel was not particularly detained in the classroom, here, in the movement, he blossomed and screamed and became even more integrated … The trips were his great hour, and he commanded the routine of cutting boards from all kinds of buildings, Which was purchased later … Daniel was on a number of tours, which included, in addition to fakes in songs, the early stages – to be the first to light the fire on the frozen morning and cook hot chocolate while someone was working with him to rub chocolate on the biscuits … The garbage got heavy and disgusting and no one wanted to carry it – Daniel took it, because anyway he did not care too much about N Kyon case or his pants … “Indeed, the permanent jeans were forbidden to wash hallmark of Daniel outside and in, Kip shoes were” embedded. Daniel continued his studies in his hometown of Herzliya, in the “Shmuel HaNagid” junior high school, and afterward in the “Rishonim” high school, where he acquired his best friends. When he was in eighth grade he began to play volleyball, and the game became one of his great loves. In the gifted class he attended, he organized a group that played in the framework of the programDon “Maccabi Herzliya”. Even though he was a classic “Hapoel” fan – red in heart and soul – he played for most of his life at Elizur Herzliya, which plays in the league. His inexhaustible thirst for knowledge and understanding of everything, Daniel sank through an endless reading of books. Backed by the vast knowledge he acquired, and equipped with considerable self-confidence, Daniel, who was an ardent leftist, for peace and against discrimination, did not hesitate to start arguing, challenging his interlocutors with original and unexpected arguments. Daniel “did not screw the bill” in his statements, yet he never argued for no reason or risk; he always checked the area before, and when he said something, everyone knew he was right. In the winter of 1994, when he was in 10th grade, it turned out that Daniel had contracted bone cancer, which hit his right shoulder. “I remember our first meeting, in the cellar of the Soroka Hospital …” recalls his first physician, Prof. Yitzhak Meller, who also analyzed him later: “You are a sixteen-year-old, tall, blond and natural with blue eyes or green but surely I think that volleyball as a game and a metaphor was very important in my assessment of my professional situation towards you … I spilled information on the table , Knowledge, experience, assessments of the situation and considerations, plans for implementation and statistical accounts of the chances and risks, and you asked questions, some of which were his affairs A, but some showed a desire to escape, to understand what is convenient and ignore the rest. ” From the time the illness was discovered, Daniel’s studies stopped running, but Daniel did not sink into depression for a moment. He arrived at school when he could, and when he could not, his teachers – and Tova Zubalski at their head – came to teach him at home. When Daniel was told that he had to undergo a biopsy, and despite the difficult situation, he determined the treatments according to his plans – after the activity at Mahane Ha’olim and after all the other things that were important to him. In the 11th grade, Daniel’s condition deteriorated, and he was forced to undergo an operation in which half of his shoulder was cut off. “Prof. Meller put his hand to the withers, and to everyone’s astonishment, after he recovered, Daniel returned to playing volleyball -” something that I do not understand scientifically, Medical, forceful and philosophical … “Prof. Meller In addition to Fern Meller, who became a close friend, Daniel was also very attached to the other doctors who treated him at Schneider Hospital – Dr. Ian Cohen and Dr. Yirmiyahu Stein But also quiet intellectual discussions about books in English, with great closeness and friendship between Daniel and his brother Dudi, and his friends were also loved. The occupier was extraordinarily friendly and open-minded about his illness, cutting off all his blond curls, exposing the area of ​​surgery and baldness, leaving the hospital alone, and apart from the family members and friends of my uncle, he would not let anyone visit him. At the end of the 11th grade vacation, when Daniel’s condition improved, Daniel and my uncle embarked on an adventurous cruise on the North Sea, off the coast of the Netherlands, during which they were caught in a storm and stranded for a while until they could continue on their journey. At the end of the year Daniel worked for the Scouts movement, celebrated the “Feast of the Virtues” with them, and decorated the addresses of the fire, Daniel loved the country and more. In the early days of his illness, he declared that whatever he was, he would be drafted into the army, and now he had to wage a double battle: both his illness and the military authorities, so that they would agree to allow him to fulfill his will.He was recruited and joined the Intelligence Corps, a weapons development unit. Daniel, full of motivation, quickly integrated into the section, demonstrated his high personal abilities, and captured the hearts of commanders and soldiers. The members wrote: “… In the first few days of your service in the unit, we felt your strong desire to invest, to study and to give to everyone, as much as possible and as soon as possible. Daniel never asked for any discounts, and even when the disease broke out again, he had all the strength to believe that he would get over, and he would be in charge even after the chemotherapy. He often organized picnics, trips and special mornings, a reminder of the merry days of the movement. Daniel Dionian was awarded the title of “Outstanding Soldier of the Year” for 1998. The commander of the unit, Colonel Tal Dilian: “We were all proud of Daniel as our representative among the elite of the Intelligence Corps with the head of the Intelligence Branch. “It was not a sick person who stood before us, but someone who succeeded in an amazing way like everyone else.” Prof. Yitzhak Meller, who attended the ceremony, shared his feelings at the time: Then, at that point in time, it was clear to me that there was a victory here (in my heart I knew then that within a year you would die physically) that left me with a bit bitter taste … but nevertheless – a victory. I understood that you had decided to go all the way with your face forward and the gun aimed at you-and not at your temple, and that was the harder way to die. This is the more terrifying way, because then you have to wait for him, to die, and to look straight for months, to suffer physical and mental suffering, and to laugh at him and not look down for a single moment, so as not to give him this pleasure. ” 1998 Daniel underwent a bone marrow transplant, and returned to the army three weeks later, very mentally strong, but his body is already weak and sore, and for two and a half years Daniel served in the army, a month as a soldier in the regular army. Daniel continued to live only with a quarter of a lung, and although he knew he was in serious condition, he went to psychometric exams in February 1999, passed them with great success, To the excellence project at Tel Aviv University, Daniel planned to study international relations and history, and two days before he passed away, he sent his sister to enroll him in studies, but the situation deteriorated, and Daniel showed great dignity when he asked not to connect with the instruments. Who already knew her bereavement when she lost her first husband in the Yom Kippur War.) “He asked us to forgive us and said it was time to say goodbye.” On April 13, 1999, Daniel breathed his last breath, and he was twenty-one and a half years old. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Herzliya. Survived by parents, brother and sister. After his fall, he was promoted to First Sergeant. His commanding officer, Shmuel Spiegel, told him: “You can not express in words what we really feel … how to tell about the brilliant and sophisticated Daniel who wants and can learn everything without apparent effort, who does not know the term ‘do not know’ or ‘can not Daniel, you have succeeded in cheating all of us, practically all of us, because the damn angel of death did not buy this story. You have succeeded in convincing us that everything is a matter of decision, that what we need is willpower and determination … We have not yet separated from you and I already miss your thunderous voice that cuts the section from side to side. Wrote Professor Yitzhak Meller: “.As time passes, I understand you, Daniel, more and more, and more and more absorb the hidden messages of your behavior then. … How many signals can you give Daniel, those five years of battle that took place at the height of youth blossom, and how many exemplary signs can atone for the power of your military service, which I think even our most decorated soldier does not reach his ankles … I have not separated from you “Daniel is immortalized in a volleyball league named after the Herzliya municipality, in cooperation with his family, which includes groups from a variety of sectors in the company His unit in the Intelligence Corps holds a soccer tournament in his name, in the first tournament, which was held On June 10, 2003, the unit commander spoke: “… Daniel was an outstanding soldier in his high abilities, professionalism, contribution to work and especially in the optimistic spirit he projected on his surroundings … Through this tournament, those who did not recognize Daniel will also recognize the values ​​that The symbol of the unit: giving, volunteering, joy of life and unlimited faith in the ability to win. “And Shmuel Spiegel added:” … only those who saw Daniel with one hand and half a lung playing volleyball in a regular group can believe that it is possible. “When the difficulties increase and it is a little hard to get up in the morning and continue pulling the cart, we remember Daniel and what we learned from him about how to cope – grinding teeth and moving forward, with optimism that sometimes has no basis …” Eleven years, and this year was the hardest. Last year, on Memorial Day, she began to seep into the realization that you really are gone and there is nowhere else to run and hide. … for us you are close inside, warm and smiling and loving and loved, sometimes funny and sometimes serious … We are sure that your memory, as the memory of a unique child of an amazing person with tremendous abilities, a child of laughter and fun, And we can remember you out of love, and a little less than pain … “Daniel, who was always connected and connected with people, always tried to be optimistic, to take advantage of life and have a good time in his hospital. An organization for patients, which developed into the project “Going Out to Life” – a project that helps young people who have recovered from cancer to continue their lives And, the young people embark on a sailing boat in the North Sea, inspired by the story of Daniel’s life and the special voyage he experienced.