Who by Fire?

Photos:  Menachem Kalish, Mishpacha archives

“Early on Yom Kippur afternoon, we felt that something was in the air, as one or two cars came to Kiryat Arba to collect some reservists. The atmosphere in the yeshivah turned electric, and the words ‘mi yichyeh, u’mi yamus’ gained new meaning.”

That was hesder yeshivah student Danny Steinberg’s first inkling that a disaster had befallen Israel’s complacent army. And that’s how he found himself on the way to the Suez Canal on Yom Kippur 1973, to fight back waves of Egyptian infantry and tanks whose advanced Soviet missiles were savaging Israel’s vaunted air and armored forces.

High over the Canal at about the same time in his Skyhawk fighter was Noach Hertz. Rushed into combat, he braved volleys of surface-to-air missiles in repeated bombing raids against Egyptian forces pushing into Israeli-held Sinai. But after days over the Suez Canal, his squadron was sent north, and his aging jet was shot down over Syria. Hertz entered the hell of captivity and torture and emerged a different person.

Far beneath those roaring jets on the Syrian front was 18-year-old tank loader Chaim Edri. He was one of a small number of Israeli armored forces who participated in a miracle on that Yom Kippur, as a tiny Israeli force held off over 1,000 Syrian tanks on the Golan Heights.