On 17 Kislev 5730, a deadly attack occurred at the dormitory of Yeshivat HaGolan in the moshav Ramat HaMagshimim in the southern Golan Heights, in which Bentzi Leibovitz, Nachum Penigstein, and Meir Nadler were murdered.
Fifty years later, Rabbi Yoel Katan - who was then a third-year student at the yeshiva - reconstructs the attack.
He related how the terrorists arrived precisely at the start of the evening study session, at a time when the dormitory, located about 100 meters from the study hall, was supposed to be empty. At that time, two students from Yeshivat Har Etzion arrived for a visit, and three students from the local yeshiva accompanied them to the dormitory to change clothes and get organized for study.
However, before they could leave, the terrorists entered the building. Three students were killed - two of them the visitors and one a student of Yeshivat HaGolan - and two others were wounded. "In the chaos, it was unclear whether the terrorists were still in the area or had fled," Rabbi Katan recounts. "Searches were conducted for hours until the emergency status was lifted."
Rabbi Katan adds that in the meantime, they were informed that the then-defense minister, Shimon Peres, was due to visit the yeshiva. "They gathered all of us in the study hall to receive him. Until he arrived, the students studied near the flagpoles. When he came and saw the young men studying Torah a few hours after some of their friends were killed - he was very moved, and he told this story on several occasions," he says.
At that time, Yeshivat HaGolan was located in the old Syrian buildings in northern Ramat Megashim. Several years later, it moved to Haspin, and subsequently grew and developed. The dean at that time was Rabbi Mordechai Halperin, who later served as a senior military Rabbi and as a leading physician.