Staff Sergeant Yuval Shoham, 22, from Jerusalem, fell yesterday in battle in the northern Gaza Strip. Shoham was a soldier in the 9th Armored Battalion and was the tenth graduate of the Himmelfarb High School in Jerusalem to fall since the beginning of the war.
This morning (Monday), Shira Ben Sasson, a family friend, eulogized Shoham on Kan Reshet Bet: "A big boy, with shining strength and amazing skills. A young man who made the most of every moment in life, who experienced the depth of every event, curious, inquisitive, knowledgeable, a friend of all, who knew how to connect, a person with shining strengths."
The Shoham family is part of the "Hakhel" community in Jerusalem, which has already lost several soldiers in this war. "We are known notoriously for the murder of Hirsch Goldberg-Polin. We have learned to deal with mourning and loss. We're getting ready for another big production, against our will. Hirsch's parents, Jon and Rachel, already visited Yuval’s parents, Ephraim and Oshrat, yesterday, together with the parents of Ben Zussman and Aner Shapira," Ben-Sasson said.
Ben Sasson spoke about Yuval's parents: "His parents are amazing people, who gave and give everything for the country. They have done and continue to do all they can out of commitment and will, in order to make this place even better."
Staff Sergeant Yuval Shoham will be laid to rest at 14:00 in the military section on Mount Herzl. His family issued a statement last night saying: "The child is gone and where am I to go. Yuval Shoham, our dearest and beloved son, was killed this morning in the Gaza Strip."
The Himmelfarb School issued a mourning notice, as follows: "It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of a graduate of the school, Yuval Shoham, a graduate of Cohort 101, 2020, who fell today in the battles in the Gaza Strip.
Yuval, the son of our friends Oshrat and Prof. Ephraim Shoham, who taught at Himmelfarb school. Brother of Shaked, a seventh-grade student at Himelfarb, and brother of school graduates: Shahar, Adi and Be'eri."
The well-known school in Jerusalem also lost Rabbi Avi Goldberg, who fell during the war and was a high school teacher at Himelfarb.
