Ronley Richter-Zufioff was 13 years old on the evening of February 4, 1997, when she spent time at a party with friends.
One of them left for a moment from the room where they were spending time, and when she came back in she said that two helicopters collided in the air and that everyone sitting in them was killed.
For Ronley, there was no need to say more than that to understand that something terrible was happening, even in her personal aspect.
"She did not say if it was soldiers or where exactly it happened," she recalls, "but I immediately started crying. I knew Shiron there. I called his cell phone and he did not answer. My parents came to pick me up. I went home and looked for clothes for seven. The parents told us "Read Psalms, and only at 2:00 at night did the informants on behalf of the army come and say that Shiron was on the lists, but in the meantime he was defined as missing. In the morning, they announced that he had been killed. Since then, it has been difficult for me to read Psalms."
"He gave me permission to take what I wanted."
Yaron in his military service,
Twenty-five years have passed since the largest military disaster the IDF has known, which occurred that night in the northern skies. Yaron Tzofioff, who served as a cook in the engineering company of the Nahal Brigade.
Ronli: "Yaron was very tidy. If we touched him in the closet - he knew immediately. Two days before the party I asked him if it was possible to take a sweatshirt, and he said 'Take what you want, do not ask me at all'. It was the first time he told me such. "And it was weird. On the eve of the party I put on his clothes. After he was killed I realized he did not just say that. He gave me permission to take what I wanted, and really, after he was killed I took his clothes and kept them."
At that time, when the IDF was deployed along the security strip of southern Lebanon, it was customary for only fighters to enter the area by plane, and combat supporters to enter convoys. Yaron, who received a chopper, did not stop talking about flying to Lebanon. Knesset and kollel established in his memory in Petah Tikva.
These days Ronley is promoting a social enterprise under the name "Raise Your Eyes - Give a Smile", inspired by the fallen brother.
"I arrived in the neighborhood where I currently live in Petah Tikva, and people do not say hello, do not look up. They enter the elevator 'inside' the phone. No one is interested in the other. My venture says - give a smile, say good morning. It calls me to Yaron "And that's his legacy. Caring to see everyone. We set up a website and created stickers. My dream is that it will be on every vehicle in the country and that people will implement it."
"Still laughing at his nonsense"
Ronley, who owns a branding and graphic design studio, is building a lecture based on Yaron's story, with the social enterprise she founded.
"I am writing the lecture thanks to 'Our Brothers', an association designed to create a supportive community for bereaved brothers and sisters. At first I did not want to join. I do not come from a place of depression. But after I joined I realized I was wrong. We are a bit transparent brothers. Strong for the parents. "But do not expect a 13-year-old girl to be strong for the parents. We snatch a big nose. ".
Regarding the lecture she is building, Ronley adds: "Through the process I went through, a story was created through the eyes of the 13-year-old girl. I speak in the first person in the present. I want to make it clear to students how important sibling relationships are, and before starting a fight "To convey something inspiring, with optimism, a message of reciprocity. Come and appreciate each other, and not quarrel. Look at the other. Everyone has a different opinion and that's fine, and that was also Yaron's worldview."
This year, as every year, Yaron's friends will gather on Memorial Day at the Tzufiof family home.
"We're really looking forward to it," Ronley explains.
"This is the moment that brings Yaron back to me. It makes me happy. We do not stop laughing at his things and nonsense. New people always come up with new stories. Stories I have not heard for 25 years. Pictures we have not seen. It revives him."
Yaron grew up in Ramat Aviv.
As a member of a religious family, he believed in the combination of religion and secularism.
When he went out to the clubs he put the dome in his pocket.
In August 1994, he enlisted in the IDF, and began serving as a cook in the Engineering Company. "We were privileged to learn a lot of values from him.
I feel it and live it.
"He comes back to me and accompanies me, and keeps me alive," says Ronli.
Life as a whole sister also accompanies her in raising her children and family.
"I live in a very big anxiety. Everyday anxiety, in the feeling that it can end all the time. That everything is temporary. We happily feel the absence of Yaron. I tell the children that they missed their uncle. I show them Yaron's film, in the weeks before the disaster his commander brought A camera, and every Memorial Day we screen the film. "
Sergeant Yaron Tzufiof was 20 years old at the time of his fall.
He was buried in the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul, leaving behind parents - Rivka and Yehuda, and three sisters - Rinat, Revital and Ronli.
"Our Brothers" was founded in 2017 by bereaved brothers and volunteers, with the aim of creating a supportive and empowering community for brothers and sisters in the Israeli bereaved family.
Led by the association, the bereaved brothers and sisters are holding physical and virtual meetings throughout the country in the days leading up to the Day of Remembrance for the Martyrs of the Israeli Civil War and the Victims of Hostilities.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us