JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A moving rendition of Gam Ki Elech, a song composed by Yossi Hershkowitz z’l while he was fighting in Gaza and before he fell in battle, was performed by Yonatan Razel and Col. (Res.) Golan Vach at a special memorial event on Sunday. The event was coordinated by the One Family organization and the World Zionist Federation.
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Sgt. Major Yossi Hershkowitz, a 44-year-old father of 5, was killed in an booby-trapped building in Beit Hanoun in the first month of the Gaza campaign. He was a beloved educator and principal of the Pelech boys high school in Jerusalem.
Yonatan Razel said that “I didn’t merit knowing Yossi Hershkowitz during his lifetime. I became acquainted with his character only after hearing the terrible news of his passing. It is hard to understand the greatness and power of Yossi’s personality. An educator, a family man, a servant of G-d, a musician, a courageous and calm soldier. I played at his Shloshim and met friends and family and understood that he was one of those special people who do everything with great humility and modesty.
“Yossi was a Levi”, Razel added “Music was part of his service of G-d and his prayers and the song Gam Ki Elech was composed during the battles in Gaza, as they were crossing a valley into Beit Hanoun, with shells and gunfire around him, and fear of death in the valley of death. It is a great honor for me to be the performer of this special tune.”
“It’s a great honor for me to perform the song with Col. Golan Vach who fought with Yossi in Gaza and merited hearing the song from him in his last days and to transmit it to us as a form of last testament from Yossi before his death. This is a song of faith and optimism amidst tough times. In the great pain we are in, these great figures are the rays of light in our lives.”
Yossi’s grieving family members can be seen in the audience, as well as World Mizrachi president Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon
