Yanai and Yael Wiseman
Yanai and Yael WisemanFamily

Today marks the anniversary of the murder of IDF First Sergeant Tuvia Yanai Weissman. A memorial will be held today (Tuesday) at the Mount Herzl military cemetery. His family will gather to hold an evening in his memory at Maaleh Michmash.

One year has passed since Yanai, on leave from his army service, his wife Yael and their baby arrived to shop at the Rami Levy supermarket in the Shaar Binyamin shopping mall. A group of Arabs armed with knives entered the store and began stabbing Jews. Yanai heard the screams, ran to the scene, and fought the attackers with his bare hands. He was mortally wounded during the combat and died several hours later at hospital.

Yael, Yanai's widow and childhood sweetheart, told Army Radio about the year that has gone by, in which she was forced to raise their daughter Neta alone.

"He's not here to see her grow up, to experience her, to help me raise her and he's not here to be a father for her to recognize. And she will grow older, and very slowly I'll tell her about her father. It's sad to see that over time, other than stories and pictures, she will have nothing else left of her father, she will not remember him and he will not be part of her life," she said.

Despite the time that has passed since the attack, the thoughts don't let up and Yael is reminded more and more of that day, "even more than the period right after the incident, when perhaps I still tried to suppress it. But with time I only think and experience it more."

Despite the pain and longing, Yael said that she is not angry at Yanai: "It's just who he was. To cause him not to do it would be to change who he was."

Weissman was not allowed to take his gun when he went on leave, so that he was unarmed when the terrorists attacked, prompting a review of IDF policy on the matter.

חנוכת "בית ינאי" -פינה חמה לחיילים

The inauguration ceremony of a warm spot for soldiers at Ma'ale Michmash in Binyamin, in memory of Yanai Weissman, Hy"d (may G-d avenge his blood).