Last Hanukkah there was an overnight Eye2Israel seminar. All the members, ages 14-18 came to learn about Israel, about public diplomacy, about debate and of course to have fun together. Our first tour was at Mount Herzl.
Mount Herzl is located in Jerusalem next to the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem. Mount Herzl is actually a big memorial site. It’s full of graves and gravestones. It has the military cemetery and graves of important people in Israeli history. While walking among all the graves the feeling is very weird, but after hearing the stories about the dead people you get a whole new perspective. For example, our guide told us the story of one soldier called Roie Klein.
Roie was a combat major in the Israeli defense forces. Our guide told us that he always cared about his soldiers. He told us that once, while some of his soldiers were out in the field he and some other soldiers went to a near town. They saw a store of fresh hot meat so they stopped to buy some. Roie did not buy anything for himself because he said it is inappropriate that he would eat while his soldiers are facing harsh conditions.
After a while, Israel had a war with Lebanon. Roie and his soldiers went into Lebanon. While they were there someone threw a grenade toward them. Roie knew that they would all die and with a lot of bravery he jumped on the grenade. He died alone and saved all of his soldiers.
In my opinion, Roie is a hero, and I am happy I visited mount Herzl to hear about him and other brave men and women like him. After this tour I got a clearer picture of what it means to live in Israel and learned that real heroes still exist.
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