Hezi Razilov, 30: Security guard who penned poetry

Yehezkel “Hezi” Razilov, 30, of Katzrin, was killed in southern Israel following Hamas’s October 7 attack.

According to his family, when Hezi heard about what was happening, he decided to head to the front lines and join the battles, despite not being called up for reserve duty.

His mother, Rachel, told the Ynet news site that on October 9, Hezi headed down south, believing that he had to join Israeli forces in defending the border. Rachel said that she spoke to Hezi several times the next day, including shortly before 9 p.m., and after that she was never able to reach him again.

On October 13, Rachel was informed by Israeli authorities that Hezi had been killed. She was not told the circumstances or location of his death.

“He called himself up from his heart, from his love for this country,” said Rachel. “The officers [who informed us of his death] said that Hezi was killed in battle, that he was a hero.”

Hezi was buried in Katzrin on October 15. He is survived by his mother, Rachel, and his sister, Tanya.

He was born in Hadera, just a few months after his mother had immigrated to Israel from Russia, according to a municipal eulogy. When he was 9 years old, the family moved to Katzrin in the Golan Heights, where he attended local schools.

As a teen, he attended the Steinberg boarding school in Kfar Saba, where he focused on computer programming. After graduating, Hezi joined the Border Police to complete his mandatory military service. He served for two years before undergoing surgery that ended his service and exempted him from reserve duty, his family said.

From 2013 to 2018, Hezi worked as a security guard protecting Jewish sites in Germany, and after returning to Israel, he continued working as a security guard, which his family said he enjoyed.

His family said he loved sports and animals and that he was part of a bike-riding club in Katzrin. He also wrote many poems and songs, some of which were returned to his mother after his death, after a number of handwritten pages were discovered by a soldier in southern Israel.

His family gave several of the poems to President Isaac Herzog to serve as part of the President’s Residence memorial to those killed on and since October 7, including one titled “Wings of Choice.”

His younger sister, Tanya, wrote on Facebook on what would have been his 31st birthday, recalling “28 years” of memories, including “when we were kids and we’d sit together on the same chair and watch TV for hours.”

“I remember that people were sure we were twins, and you would laugh at me and say, ‘You look old for your age,’” she recounted. “When we were kids, you would love to build things and mostly to create swords.”

He ran toward her with a sword one day, accidentally slicing her face, Tanya recalled: “You left me with two scars in my life. One an inch from my right eye, a scar you can see but that has long since stopped hurting, and another scar in my heart, one you can’t see but that will hurt for the rest of my life.”

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