The revered director fell in the Gaza Strip. "Don't say slander," was Yossi Hershkovitz's last message to his students, in a video he sent them from the reserves, on the eve of the ground incursion into Gaza.
"It's going to be a tough time. I ask everyone here, the most important thing to me. Not to say slander against the people of Israel. There is no leftist, or right-wing, or ultra-Orthodox. Nothing. There are Jews. The Nazi Hamasniks didn't care who you chose or what you thought. This is the soul-searching that needs to be constantly put in our heads. Let her say slander," he told his students at the Pelach Banim school in Jerusalem, which he began directing a year and a half ago.
Hershkovitz lived in Givot in Gush Etzion, 44, married with five children. His cousin, Dvira Gross, said of him, "Yossi was the best person I knew, egoless, never judged anyone, a great educator."
Hershkovitz was a beloved figure and admired educator at the school. When he was chosen to run the school, he said that his aspiration was to add only good for the sake of repairing the world. Shalom Weil, founder of Pelach Banim and Yossi's close friend, said of him: "Yossi is an incredibly impressive educator. Tough on the outside and all heart on the inside. Everyone who knew him for a minute thought he was tough, and those who knew him for two minutes felt like butter."
Shalom said he met Yossi about eight years ago, when he returned with his wife and children from a mission in the United States. Together with Yossi, they were part of the founding team of the Pelach Banim School, which Shalom managed. "Yossi was the central figure in the establishment of the school. A true partner, a soul mate, an educator from whom I learned a lot. We all learned a lot from him. When he wasn't in school, he would go to hospitals to play for cancer patients."
As mentioned, about a year and a half ago, Yossi replaced Shalom in the management of the school. Over the past year, Shalom says, Yossi has been tormented by the rift in the nation. "He spoke about the crisis among the people of Israel, said we would pay for it. He said we messed up hugely in our rift, in our inability to see the good in each other."
Yossi was part of an elite reserve unit and as soon as the war broke out he enlisted in the reserves. "They were the veterans team. Old. It was clear to them that they had to be the leaders. Yossi's perception was that veterans are not privileged people, they are people who work harder. After Black Sabbath, he saw it as an insult on a personal level, and he was sharp and clear. He went out with his team. The people of Israel have a lot to learn from their character, their dedication and heroism," Shalom says. On Friday, a few hours before the Sabbath began, the bitter news of his fall arrived.
Gush Etzion Council head Shlomo Ne'eman eulogized him: "Yossi, an educator and benefactor, was one of the best sons of this country."
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us