Talia Nathanson, who was the kindergarten teacher of Yehuda Levy, who was killed in a rockslide last week near the Dead Sea, wrote a heartbreaking obituary in which she painfully questioned: "How can it be that Yehuda is no longer in this world."
"Where is the boy that I hugged every morning for three years, from the end of nursery until he went into first grade? Where is the boy that last year, on the first of September, I cried when I received from his parents his picture on his first day in first grade, with the message 'You have a huge part in his love, in his connection to his friends and in his confidence.' And I saw how proud he was, confident in himself, smiling with those cute dimples, and I was moved by how much he had grown and how he had reached first grade in a way that made me feel calm that he would succeed in school," the kindergarten teacher wrote in her obituary, published in Israel Hayom.
She added: "Yehuda was a shy child, and when he first came to our kindergarten, he would put his hand up, and when I gave him permission to speak, he would fold his legs and bury his head between his knees because the words did not come out as quickly as he wanted, because of all the excitement. After three years of working together with him and his amazing parents, and with a lot of our trust – he learned to speak with confidence and was so proud of his success. Yehuda was a boy who liked to move from one activity to another, to play as many board games as possible, so as not to feel like he lost out – and no matter which group he joined, he always managed to fit in, regardless of the age or the type of friends. He would always have a smile and a mischievous personality. Everyone loved him."
"He didn’t particularly like artwork, but one day he sat for a long time in the corner involved in some art project. When he got up, he was wrapped in paper clothing: shoes, a hat, a tie, and sleeves. We all laughed so much. On that day, we had a fashion design day and used humungous amounts of paper. But it was so magical. Around 11:00, my assistant suddenly said, 'Children, isn't anyone hungry? I am really hungry.’ Nobody had noticed the time passing. So, we stopped and went to eat. We had such happy times with Yehuda,” she said.
We have a tradition in Hemdat. On Fridays, the school children who were in the kindergarten get off the bus nearby and come with their heavy schoolbags to say Shabbat Shalom [have a good weekend]. We give them a hug and a piece of cake that we made in kindergarten," says Talya, "so for the past two years, we continued to receive hugs and got updates on his progress. They also told us about school. I was waiting to see him grow even more. I knew that at some stage, he would be too embarrassed to hug me, but for a while, he was still mine. Deep, deep in the heart: fighting for him to get what he needed to progress, watching him adapt to the next stage of his development, hugging, encouraging, meditating. Hugging and hugging and hugging."
"Where is he? Where is this beloved child? How can it be that in the morning, he still made his sisters laugh, and in the evening, we buried him? What do you call a kindergarten teacher who has lost a piece of her heart?" Talya Nathanson eulogized Yehuda.