Every year, the cemeteries are filled with the families of fallen IDF soldiers who come to visit their loved ones' place of rest and to commemorate their memory, but the grave of the late Maj. Moshe Ze'ev Breuer remains bereft of visitors.

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Breuer, an ultra-Orthodox officer and graduate of the Kol Torah Yeshiva in Jerusalem, died in 1956 in a reprisal operation in Qalqilya. He was 29. He was buried in a civilian cemetery in Bnei Brak and his family, which does not recognize the state, refrains from visiting his grave on Memorial Day, but rather holds a memorial service only on the anniversary of his death.

(Photo: Shaul Golan)

Only one person would show up: Pinchas, Breuer's cousin, who also fought in that operation and decided that if the family didn't come to the grave on Memorial Day, he would be the one to visit the gravesite and give his cousin the honor he deserved, like the other fallen soldiers of Israel.

But the years have passed, and a stroke left Pinchas, now 81, confined to a wheelchair and physically unable to reach the cemetery. He said, "Since the incident, I can't go. There is sand in the cemetery, and I can't go in. Before the incident, I went every year, and it hurts me that I can't go there. He's my cousin and there's no one to go, only me. This is a civilian cemetery in Bnei Brak, so nobody recognized it. They buried him, and that was it."

He recounted how, over the years, when he came to the grave of the late Breuer at the Zichron Meir cemetery in Bnei Brak, he would be attacked by ultra-Orthodox Jews. "The ultra-Orthodox would attack me and throw me out. There was a siren, and I stood at attention and they circled me and shouted and pushed me. They were against everything related to the army," he said.

Maj. Breuer

Students from Amit High School in Modi'in decided to pitch in so that Breuer's gravesite would be surrounded by people standing at attention during the Memorial Day siren, commemorating his memory. "It's hard to accept a situation when there is no one to go up on Memorial Day to Moshe's grave and say Kaddish (a memorial prayer) for an outstanding officer who sacrificed himself for the sake of the state," said Omer Avidar, a sophomore. "We feel that this is a significant Zionist act … This is a very sad story, but we are happy that this year there will be someone to stand next to his grave."

"This act expresses our shared destiny," said Rabbi Itamar Chaikin, the principal of Amit Modi'in. "Even if people deny it, the country and the people have mutual responsibility. And in Bnei Brak as well, they should remember the soldiers who make it possible to continue studying Torah and living in the State of Israel. It is only right that the residents of Bnei Brak pay last respects to a soldier who had given his life and no less respect to the living soldiers. We at the school teach to remember, especially those who have been forgotten by their own community."

Cousin Pinchas expressed relief following the initiative: "I was very worried that the grave would remain orphaned. He deserves to be respected."

(Translated and edited by N. Elias)