Staff Sgt. Eytan Dishon, 21: Quiet scholar ‘with a rich inner world’

Staff Sgt. Eytan Dishon, 21, of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, was killed in northern Gaza on November 20. Dishon was described by one of his teachers as “very smart, quiet, with a rich inner world. He was the ideal student, very dedicated and disciplined, a leader.”

Dishon grew up in Nof Zion, an ideological Jewish community in East Jerusalem, and attended high school at Naveh Shmuel Yeshiva High School in Efrat. He is one of three soldiers from the same class who were killed in the Gaza offensive.

The IDF had wanted Dishon to be in intelligence or the air force, but he decided to go first to a pre-army yeshiva in Kiryat Shemona instead. There, the rosh yeshiva told him that he would also be the head of a yeshiva one day.

“He was humble, a man of action and not of words. He didn’t talk very much, but when he spoke he was sharp and to the point… He had values and special qualities. He was sensitive to his family, had a special sense of humor and loved to study Torah,” his family told Makor Rishon in an article published after his death.

In a conversation with his family a week before he fell in battle, Dishon said, “We are strong, and even if someone dies, we raise our heads and continue until we win.”

Dishon was the oldest of four boys. Dishon’s father, Dori Dishon, is a Lieutenant Colonel doing reserve duty. He received the notification of his son’s death while he was serving in the field.

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