Sgt. 1st Class Matanya Alster, 22: Reservist and high school counselor

Sgt. First Class (res.) Matanya Alster, 22, a soldier in the Carmeli Brigade, from Sde Ilan, was killed on October 11, 2023, in an anti-tank guided missile attack along the Lebanon border.

With the start of the Hamas attack, Matanya didn’t wait to be called up and headed down south that Saturday afternoon. Since he hadn’t been officially called up, he was sent first to an IDF base near Ashkelon and then was assigned to head toward the northern border, where cross-border violence with Lebanon was also heating up.

Three days later, Matanya was killed and another soldier was wounded when the Hezbollah terror group fired missiles at an Israeli army post near the northern Israeli village of Arab al-Aramshe.

He was buried on October 13 in Sde Ilan. He is survived by his parents, Sara and Dan, and his siblings Aviya, Reut, Ariel, Yehuda and Yafit.

Born and raised in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, the youngest of his six siblings, Matanya attended high school at the Regavim dormitory school in Kibbutz Tirat Zvi in the north, combining religious and agricultural studies.

He later also studied at the Itamar yeshiva in the northern West Bank. As a teenager, his family moved to Sde Ilan, a religious community in the Lower Galilee.

During his mandatory military service, Matanya served in the Golani Brigade’s 13th battalion as a Negevist. During his later reserve duty he was assigned to the Carmeli Brigade.

After he was released, Matanya started working as a counselor at his high school, helping to shepherd students in 9th-12th grades.

Boaz Lipnick, the principal of the school, recalled that “Matanya, you came to us in the 9th grade and immediately stood out. A boy full of strength and joy for life. You were a social magnet. It was incredible to see how all the young boys immediately fell in love with you.”

His older brother, Aviya, told a local radio station that Matanya “was a person, not an angel, but with an elevated soul… he was a people person, he was someone without any barriers.”

Aviya said that growing up with five older siblings, Matanya “received all the love, was showered with affection, and he grew up a very strong kid, mentally, with confidence,” was never afraid to share his struggles. “He brought everyone together, he had no ego… to him, everyone had equal worth.”

Matanya’s sister, Reut, shared on Facebook the eulogy she read for her younger brother, “who we always knew was only here temporarily.”

“Thank you for teaching me what love is, how to express it, simply, as it is,” she wrote. “Without filters, without defenses. Your sensitivity oozed from your ears, open, visible, exposed. You were welcoming and looked everyone in the eyes.”

“Thank you for coming and lighting up our home,” Reut added. “Thank you for holding on to my heart. Thank you for making me feel good and important. Thank you for embracing me and enveloping me with protection and security. Thank you for listening to my heart and feeling me. Thank you for choosing us as your family.”

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