Family of Max Steinberg visits Western Wall

The family of the late American-Israeli soldier Max Steinberg visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

Evie and Stuart Steinberg, and their remaining son and daughter, who came to Israel last week for the funeral of Max Steinberg, 24, a southern California native who was killed in Gaza in an attack on the armored personnel carrier in which he was riding, made their first visit to the Western Wall on Sunday night.

The family was accompanied by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and his wife.

Stuart Steinberg recited the Mourners’ Kaddish at the wall in the presence of the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz. Visitors to the wall surrounded the family to offer them condolences and praise for their son.

Steinberg was riding in the armored vehicle with six other members of the Golani Brigade when it was attacked by Hamas explosives. He was a sharpshooter in the elite brigade who had enlisted in the army several months after visiting Israel for the first time on a Birthright trip.

His mother, Evie, told Israel’s Channel 2 upon her arrival at Ben Gurion Airport that her son was “a hero.”

Steinberg’s parents had wanted to visit the Western Wall because it was where their son was sworn in to the Israel Defense Forces, according to Rabinowitz.

The Steinberg family expressed appreciation for the continued solidarity and support they have received from around the country since landing in Israel, at the funeral, for the period of mourning and at the Western Wall, Rabinowitz said in a statement.

According to police reports, 30,000 people attended Max Steinberg’s funeral at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem last Wednesday.