After a year during which the religious-Zionist movement and the settlements have been attacked, slandered, bullied, and even beaten, it appears that IDF soldiers from religious Zionist schools constitute the group that paid the highest price for their love of country. According to Makor Rishon, out of 167 IDF soldiers who lost their lives in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, 66, or 39.52%, were brought up in the religious-Zionist movement.
According to a 2017 Ynet report, 29% of Israelis define themselves as religious Zionists.
The number 66 includes the graduates of religious high schools and high school yeshivas who fell since the IDF entered the Gaza Strip on October 27, through December 28. Some of them later also studied in hesder yeshivas, higher yeshivas, and pre-military courses, so the data is not aggregated. For example: quite a few of the fallen who attended the high school yeshiva in Kiryat Arba also studied at the Mechinat Eli preparatory school, but on the list, each counts as one.
Eight of the religious Zionist yeshivas and seminaries lost more than one student or graduate: eight of the Eli preparatory school died in Gaza, and seven more lost their lives in the fighting on October 7; the Yerucham hesder yeshiva lost eight graduates; the Har Etzion hesder yeshiva lost three, as did the yeshiva in Sderot; the yeshivas in Tsfat, Kiryat Shmona, and Maaleh Gilboa lost two graduates each; Mechinat Otzem in Moshav Naveh in the Gaza envelope lost two graduates in the Strip and 11 on October 7.
The Neve Shmuel Yeshiva in Efrat stands out among the religious Zionist high schools, having lost five of its graduates. Four graduates of Himmelfarb High School in Jerusalem were killed. The high school yeshiva in Kiryat Arba lost seven of its graduates, five of them on October 7.
Many other preparatory schools and yeshivas have lost one graduate in Gaza since the beginning of the ground operation: the preparatory schools in Hemdat, Ma’ale-Efraim, Keshet, and Aderet; the Yeshivas in Tfa’chot, and Beit She’an; the High Yeshivas in Eli, Ramat Gan, Ma’ale Israel in Yitzhar, Ma’ale Eliyahu in Tel Aviv, Kerem in Yavneh, Itamar, Evyatar, Be’er Ha’Techia in Beer Sheva, Shevei Hevron, Ma’ale Adumim, Beit Orot, and Atniel.
Jerusalem was the city that lost more of its residents on October 7 and in Gaza than any other locality – 37 out of the 501 IDF soldiers.
May their memory be blessed.
