Maxim Molchanov (20) is an IDF soldier who fell Thursday in a vehicular attack at the Maccabim checkpoint. Molchanov, who served as a soldier in the Keren Battalion of the Artillery Corps, was a lone soldier who immigrated to Israel about four years ago from Ukraine. He was promoted from corporal to sergeant posthumously.
The bereaved father, Evgeni, spoke about his son who fell sadly: "Everyone always says that someone who passed away was special but my son really was. Besides being in the army, he donated bone marrow to a little boy in Germany last year. He was always happy and open to helping everyone."
Vehicular attack near the Maccabim checkpoint // Yoni Rikner
Molchanov immigrated to Israel from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which is near the front lines of the war with Russia, and was heavily bombed in the coming period. Those who were forced to tell his parents the news of Job's death were Chabad emissaries instead of the city's Rabbi Moshe Moskowitz and Rebbetzin Miriam Moskowitz.
"Today they called my husband at around 12 noon, they said a lone soldier had been killed and they had to inform the family. Reach out to family. My husband had to conduct a funeral service, so I went out to inform my parents, Larisa and Evgeni. The army instructed me what to say and how to say it," says Rebbetzin Miriam.
"The mother started crying and screaming. The grandmother was close and came to ask what happened, and then her husband also came and we told them. The mother didn't understand why I had come at first, then she didn't want to believe it. I told her to call my eldest son, who lives in Israel and immigrated before his little brother. I got to the house and she said she didn't understand how it happened. After all, it's their day off. They had such a day of consolidation and he was killed at the checkpoint.
"Maxim made Aliyah in ninth grade through the Na'af program, he was proud that he was not just in the army but a fighter. After hours of shock and crying, I help them organize the trip."
Rebbetzin Miriam talks about the couple's life in the shadow of the war, while their children are in Israel: "We are 20 minutes from the border with Russia. They were calm that the children were in Israel because we had been hit by quite a few bombs in Kharkiv and then it happened.
"The truth is, I never believed we would do this. We've been here for 33 years. We're at war, we've been hit by bombs and rockets, but to tell someone whose child was killed I didn't do and I didn't believe I would. It was very difficult."
Now they are making their way to Israel, a road that is more complicated than ever: "They will have to get out of Ukraine. It's 14 hours from Moldova's border by car and then plane to Israel.
"He was so proud that he was a fighter," Miriam repeats, "his parents said he would like to be buried in Israel."
Participated in the preparation of the article: Lilach Shoval
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