He Came to Comfort a Yad L’Achim Activist Whose Brother Fell in Gaza, And Returned to Judaism

“A few months ago, when I sat shiva for my brother IDF Maj. Yehudah Natan Cohen, Hy”d, I was visited by A., a young man I had worked with on behalf of Yad L’Achim, and his father,” recalls Harav Shlomo Yedidya Cohen.

“A. had been in a relationship with a non-Jewish woman and I met with him a number of times to explain to him the mistake he was making in staying with her. He understood the problem but couldn’t find the strength to take break off the relationship.

“After A. and his father visited me during the shiva and heard the story of my younger brother, who was just 25 and commanded a Sayeret Givati platoon, and his willingness to give up his life for the sake of Am Yisrael and for Judaism, A’s father decided to attend shul on Shabbos night, in Yehudah’s memory. Within a few weeks, A. informed me that he was leaving his non-Jewish girlfriend.

“The war and the heroic stories of young soldiers giving up their lives moved something inside of him and made him understand that marrying a non-Jew would be severing the chain of Judaism for generations to come of his descendants.”