One of the pictures that caught attention when the hostages were released in the first round was of 9-year-old Ohad Munder, who had been in captivity for 49 days, receiving a Lego from Maor Cohen, known as "The Lego Man." On normal days he distributes the games to cancer patients, but when the fighting began in Gaza, Major Cohen, a casualty and missing persons officer on duty, was drafted into the reserves and decided to bring a smile to the faces of the children who were injured on the bloody Saturday, who lost their parents or returned from Gaza.
Ohad Munder meets his father for the first time after returning from captivity
For him, it was a defining moment, to arrive at Schneider Hospital that Saturday and distribute Lego to the first children who returned from captivity: "Last Saturday, during lunch, I received a call from Schneider Hospital telling me that there is a child who really likes Lego and that he would be happy to meet me," Cohen told Israel Hayom. "I immediately understood what it was all about. I stopped a taxi even though it was Saturday, put my family in a taxi and sent them to my wife. Then I got in the car and drove straight to the hospital, which was very exciting.
"It's not clear to me what I did in life, that I had the privilege of meeting this boy and the girls who came with him. I brought him Lego and talked to him for a while, then I sat with the girls who came back and built Lego with them. Listen, I'm floating. It's very moving and heart-filling to see these children's eyes, especially when you realize where they were just a few hours earlier. I was moved by their ability to connect to the game, to the building. You saw that they were longing to go back to their childhood from two months ago."
With Ohad Munder. "It's a privilege to meet him," Photo: IDF Spokesperson
The nickname stuck with him
On Independence Day, in Israel's 73rd year, under the title "Israeli Brotherhood," the honorary priest was awarded the honor of carrying a torch at a ceremony on Mount Herzl. Cohen, who was still serving at the time in his position as head of the unique service section of the Meitav unit in the IDF, was in charge of the recruitment process of special populations to the army, including the volunteer population.
Cohen, who did this on a mission, personally accompanied each volunteer candidate for security service. He began his volunteer work by setting up a Lego building class once a week, and has since expanded it to distribute Lego kits in the evenings.
Besides, he devoted his time to working with children with cancer. The nickname "Lego Man" stuck with him because, among other things, he would distribute Lego kits to sick children. Even during the pandemic, he continued his activities, distributing food packages and sleeping products to street residents and needy families. About a year ago, Cohen was discharged from the IDF and decided to continue his volunteer work. At the same time, he began to study nursing.
Maor Cohen. Went to the hospital on Saturday, photo: Ofer Chen
Miraculous kindness
After the Black Saturday of October 7, he and his wife were drafted into the reserves, but he never thought for a moment about ceasing his volunteer work. On the second day of the fighting, he received a phone call from a social worker from Dana Hospital in Ichilov about two children, survivors from Bari, who asked for Legos. "They told me that these are children from Kibbutz Be'eri who really experienced an inferno, one of them lost his father and sister before his eyes, and they really want Lego. I immediately arrived at the hospital. It was a very difficult experience, a situation I didn't know. The boy shared everything he went through."
Another boy told Cohen that a terrorist had stepped on his Lego. "He really broke it," he said painfully. "Their stories broke my heart. I realized that I was entering a different event here, a kind of kindness that I had not known before. I thought straight about the children with cancer I accompany on a daily basis. Children who live in the envelope, who have left home, others who live in Sderot or Be'er Sheva, as well as children who are hospitalized in oncology wards – suddenly they are a little alone because one of the parents was recruited, and now I feel that we need to take part in this in a different way. From that moment on, I started distributing to children that I don't usually give out."
On the second day of the fighting, he received a phone call from a social worker. Dana Children's Hospital at Tel Aviv Medical Center, Photo: Moshe Shai
Cohen did not rest. If you call him and if he finds them himself, he goes around the hospital wards and tries to make the children happy with Lego. "I was told about a boy who lost his father and brother and loves Lego very much, so I went to him. Some of the children talk to me and tell me what they went through. I met a boy who asked his father to go back to the ruins of the house so he could save the Lego, and the father didn't want to. I also got a call about a child whose brother was killed and the family gets up from the shiva. They were looking for some kind of race car for him for his birthday. So I met the boy and brought him this car."
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