Noam, Hy’d and Yishai, H’yd Slotki, the grandsons of Rav Eitzan Eisman, a leading Dati Leumi Rav, both fell in a heroic battle with Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Noam, 31, and Yishai, 24, were both at home with their respective families in Be’er Sheva when they heard about the Hamas attack in the south and that civilians were fending for themselves. Without thinking twice, and before even receiving a Tzav 8 call-up from the army, they bid goodbye to their families and ran to their cars to assist.

They were never seen or heard from again. They were initially reported as missing and were unaccounted for for five days. Eventually, their older brother Uri drove to the south to search for them himself. He reached Kibbutz Alumim, a Shomer Shabbos kibbutz which terrorists failed to enter but a fierce gun battle took place right outside, and saw their car parked next to a bus stop. He later found their bodies nearby.

Security camera footage showed that the two brave brothers got out of the car and immediately joined the battle against the terrorists, which was already well underway. They came under fire as soon as they left the car but the obvious risk to their lives didn’t deter them and they succeeded in killing dozens of terrorists before being killed themselves.

In a rare step, the IDF decided to recognize the Slotki brothers as slain IDF soldiers [although they were not on active duty when they were killed], and their levaya took place at the Her Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.

Each of them left a wife and baby. Their father, Rav Shmuel Slotki, the Rav of a Dati Leumi shul in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem, told Artuz Sheva that he draws comfort from the fact that each left a child.

Yishai, H’yd, had a twin brother Yonatan, who after sitting shiva, is stationed on the northern border as a reservist.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)