Sgt. Maj. Yakir Blohman, 33: Police detective and ‘total family man’
Killed battling Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on October 7
Sgt. Maj. Yakir Blohman, 33, a detective at the Segev Shalom police station, from Dimona, was killed on October 7
Yakir headed out early that Saturday morning as soon as he heard of the Hamas invasion, “told me that he loved me, hugged us, gave me a kiss and said, ‘You’re staying here until I come back,'” his wife said.
The police officer set out toward the Re’im area in an armored jeep, along with the Segev Shalom station commander, Itzik “Bazuka” Buzukashvili. Yakir rescued a number of wounded and returned over and over again to the site of the fighting to help others.
Police Sgt. Maj. Yigal Zinger, who was wounded in the attack, told Yakir’s son in a Kan news article that “he heard that I needed help and he came to save me… three times he went back to save people, he was very brave, he wasn’t afraid of the terrorists,” said Zinger. “He saved my life, me and my whole team.”
Yakir was buried on October 11 in Dimona. He is survived by his wife, Rotem, their two sons, Imri, 6, and Koren, 3, his mother, Rima and his brother Daniel.
Born in Russia, Yakir moved to Israel in 1994 when he was a young boy. He joined the police force in 2013, serving for more than a decade in the southern district before he was killed.
Yakir’s brother, Danny, wrote on Instagram that it was “important that people know who my big brother was.”
“You left us by doing the thing you did best — helping others and not thinking about yourself, we all have so much to learn from you,” he added. “You were the man and the fighter who I always wanted to be, a wonderful father to your two little ones, an incredible husband to Rotem and above all my brother, who I grew up with.”
Danny said that Yakir “left us and all those you saved so many gifts, moments and memories full of light and joy to live with — it’s impossible not to smile, to laugh and to cry.”
His wife, Rotem, shared on Facebook the eulogy she read at his funeral.
“Thank you for a life with you, thank you for more than a decade where I was loved and in love, thank you for making every dream I had come true — even dreams I didn’t dare to dream,” she said.
“Thank you for being a fairytale husband and father, thank you for showering endless warmth on our children, thank you for being the total family man that you were, thank you for experiences that are enough for a lifetime,” Rotem continued.
“Thank you for the dozens of lives you saved, thank you for the wonderful people you left around you, thank you for the values you left us, thank you for always teaching us to appreciate those around us, thank you for teaching us what nobility is.”
