IDF tank commander

Marshall Weiss

The Dayton Jewish Observer

Slain Israeli tank commander with family in Dayton volunteered to be ‘sitting-duck’

On Aug. 2 — the Ninth of Av — the Israeli Defense Forces called up Noam Yakov Mayerson to active duty from the reserves.

A week later, he was buried on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. At the 9 p.m. funeral, more than 1,500 people paid their respects to the hero, who was to marry on Sept. 10.

Noam was one of five soldiers killed in southern Lebanon on Aug. 8.

The 23-year-old had already served three years in the army and had been released a few months before, with the rank of sergeant in the tank corps.

He was the grandson of Daytonian Manny Mayerson, age 89, and the late Florence Mayerson, who died on April 28.

Noam’s parents, Harvey —formerly of Dayton — and Gila, moved to Israel in 1975. Noam was one of five children.

On Aug. 6, the IDF had assembled an elite group of 40 commandos to enter Lebanon. Their aim, according to Noam’s aunt, Sandy Mayerson, was to try to wipe out the Hezbollah who were firing rockets into northern Israel.

“As they approached the border, the ammunition loader of the unit commander’s tank simply could not go on,” she explained during a memorial service for Noam at Dayton’s Beth Jacob Congregation on Aug. 12.

“The unit commander radioed back to the staging area and asked for a volunteer to be the ammunition loader in the lead tank. The soldier in this position would be, as we say, a sitting duck.”

Noam volunteered for the job.

“This elite unit wiped out 40 Hezbollah snipers, but after six and a half hours, the lead tank took a direct hit,” she said. “Noam and his commander were dead.”

After two missions over 48 hours, the IDF returned Noam’s body to Israel.

Former Daytonian Beth Zuriel, a friend of the Mayersons who is also the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton’s representative in Israel, was at the funeral.

“His father-in-law to be, who had lost an arm in the Yom Kippur War, spoke of Noam’s modesty and how he had won over all the new family members,” Beth said.

Sandy said that Noam enjoyed nature. “It was his fondest hope to combine his Jewish studies and his love for nature to create a positive educational tool that would help people appreciate both,” she explained. “He hoped to enter the rabbinate and dedicate his life to the Jewish people.”

The day after Noam was called up to service, Sandy called him to express her concerns.

Noam was the third of Harvey and Gila’s sons to be called up.

“I complained to him that it wasn’t fair that one family should have to give three sons to this fight,” she recalled.

“He said, ‘Oh Sandy, so many families have to give so much more. We are Jews. We have no choice but to fight for a place where Jews can live in peace.’ He was willing to go to war and to volunteer for the lead tank for the right to live in peace.”

© 2006 The Dayton Jewish Observer