Missing and mostly forgotten
Not totally forgotten here
The Jewish Standard, in its editorials and in columns by Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer, has sought to keep the names of the missing Tzahal soldiers in the public’s consciousness. Engelmayer’s Cliffside Park synagogue, Temple Israel Community Center/Congregation Heichal Yisrael, offers a weekly prayer for them during the Torah service
In addition to Baumel, Katz, and Feldman, others who are among the otherwise forgotten missing are:
• Ron Arad – He has been an MIA longer than any of the others. He was born in Israel to Batyah and Dov Arad on May 5, 1958. A chemical engineering student at The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Arad was called back to active service in the Air Force in the summer of 1986. He served as a navigator on F-4 Phantom jets.
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On Oct. 16, 1986, his plane went down near Sidon in Lebanon. He and his pilot parachuted to safety. The pilot was dramatically rescued by a helicopter under fire (he clutched the vehicle’s skids and swayed precariously in the wind as it flew him from the scene). Arad, unfortunately, was not rescued in time. He was captured by the Lebanese militia Amal. The mostly Shi’a group is headed by Nabih Berri, currently the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament. Newspaper reports earlier in 2009 suggested that Arad is still alive.
• Guy Hever – He was born in Tel Aviv to Rina and Eitan Hever on May 30, 1977. He and his parents later moved to Kochav Yair, then a community-in-formation in Israel’s central district. It was named for Avraham “Yair” Stern, founder of the infamous pre-statehood Stern Gang. Hever was a computer enthusiast and science fiction buff. He was stationed at an army base on the southern Golan Heights when he disappeared on Aug. 17, 1997. He was last seen in an area a little over a half-mile from the Syrian border.
• Majdy Halabi – Israel’s most recent MIA (with the exception of Gilad Shalit) is an Israeli Druze. He was born in Israel on Dec. 22, 1985 to Fahmiya and Nazmi Halabi in Dalyat El Karmel in Israel’s mountainous north. He was last seen in the middle of the afternoon of May 24, 2005. His uncle, a retired IDF colonel, reportedly stated his belief that Halabi was seized by Palestinian terrorists and is being held s
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