Those We Have Lost

Sgt. First Class (res.) Yinon Fleishman, 31: Beloved educator

Efrat resident was killed in a tank accident along the northern border on October 29

Sgt. First Class Yinon Fleischman, 31, a reserves soldier from Jerusalem, who was killed in a tank accident on the northern border on October 29, 2023. (Courtesy)
Sgt. First Class Yinon Fleischman, 31, a reserves soldier from Jerusalem, who was killed in a tank accident on the northern border on October 29, 2023. (Courtesy)

Sgt. First Class (res.) Yinon Fleishman, 31, a soldier in the 188th Armored Brigade, from Jerusalem, was killed in a tank accident on the northern border on October 29.

Fleishman grew up in the West Bank settlement of Efrat. He is survived by his wife, Noa, and infant son, Ziv, as well as his parents, Benny and Michal, and five siblings.

In the middle of his funeral on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, an air raid siren sounded and all the mourners were told to lie on the ground and cover their heads.

Fleishman worked as a history teacher at the Hartman High School in Jerusalem, and also taught in several other locations, including a religious school in the Tekoa settlement.

His cousin, Itamar Fleishman, eulogized him in Israel Hayom as “a man of books and thought, a beloved educator, an educated and broad-minded soul.”

Yinon, he wrote, “was creative and original, and radiated knowledge and love to all he encountered. A man who inspired and pursued peace who abhorred war, but was called up to protect the people and the country when reality demanded it.”

Royi Ofran-Hamburger, who worked with Yinon at Hartman, described him as “the best man there was — the best teacher there was.”

“Many have spoken about his wisdom, his dedication, his pleasant manner. His smile and his modesty,” wrote Ofran-Hamburger. “He really was the smartest, on the level of the most successful teacher there was, and the most quiet and humble — did his job and kept going… he invested his soul and all of himself in the tasks he chose.”

Channel 12 news journalist Yair Cherki, who knew Fleishman from their time together at the same yeshiva high school, eulogized him live on air: “A wise scholar… Yinon with the glasses always had a book in his hand, knowledgable, diligent, intellectual… a man of books, a man full of religion, spirituality… he always both learned and taught others.”

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