Mourning the Death of His 2 Sons, Rabbi Slotki Continued to Search for Casualties

Among the hundreds of thousands of reservists called up since last October 7th, Lt. Col. (Res.) Rabbi Shmuel Slotki, the father, was one of 80 honored with the Chief of Staff's Excellence Medal shortly before the Jewish New Year.

Among those 80 heroes, Rabbi Slotki’s story, as commander of a search platoon of the IDF Rabbinate’s Casualty Search Unit, stands out. He commanded the search for missing persons and victims in the south after the October 7 massacre, sometimes under fire, despite knowing that two of his sons—later found to be killed—were among the missing.

On the morning of Simchat Torah, upon hearing scattered rumors of a large-scale terrorist attack in the Gaza envelope, Slotki's two sons, Yishai and Noam ob”m—both Golani reserve fighters, each married with a child—were united in their decision. Despite not receiving any official order or army call-up, they donned their uniforms and left their homes in Be'er Sheva, armed with only their personal handguns. They began to drive south and ended up outside Kibbutz Alumim, hours before the army arrived.

Twins Yishai (L) and Yonatan Slotki

Security camera footage captured their heroism. Noam and Yishai were exposed to clear signs of the mortal danger they were walking into. Driving up to the gate, they were confronted by the sight of eight vehicles, burnt and riddled with bullets. An RPG blew up another one as they parked the car. Over 25 terrorists were present. As they jumped out of their car, a hail of bullets greeted them. They dove into a ditch.

It is presumed that they took down a number of terrorists, as they were found surrounded by bodies of dead terrorists.

Alumim was one of very few kibbutzim which Hamas terrorists did not successfully penetrate, and all signs indicate that the Slotki brothers played a significant role in that outcome.

Rabbi Slotki was in the strange position of working alongside those in the IDF Rabbinate who would inevitably identify his sons. When it became increasingly likely his sons were no longer living, his colleagues presented him with a gut-wrenching dilemma: If one son was identified, would he like to be informed right away, or only to be informed once the second son was identified as well? The first option would enable that son’s burial, and subsequent shiva mourning period, to take place right away, but also carried the possibility of needing to bury a second son in the middle of shiva for the first son. The second option would allow for a joint burial and joint shiva, but delay the burial of the son first identified.

Ultimately, the second option was chosen and they were buried at the same time. Post-facto, the Slotki's learned that one son was in fact identified five days before the other.

Yishai and Noam Slotki hy”d (Photo: Meir Lavi)

Shortly after the shiva mourning period ended, Rabbi Slotki inexplicably volunteered to rejoin his unit engaged in locating missing persons and identifying the murdered. In his mind, since his colleagues in the IDF Rabbinate had been working around the clock to identify casualties as quickly as possible, and he just had the firsthand experience of the closure brought by receiving a verified identification, “How could I not go out there and help bring other families that closure as soon as possible?”

“My presence gave mental and spiritual strength to the soldiers,” he relates, “out of the understanding that even when we take a devastating blow, our job is to get up, to be encouraged and to act for the continued existence of the State of Israel.”

Rabbi Slotki prefers to dedicate the appreciation he received last month to his soldiers. "This award is actually for all my soldiers in the IDF Rabbinate, just they can't give it to everyone so they gave it to a representative," he said. "We all searched and located signs of casualties. We all worked as emissaries of the families of the fallen. We all did the physically and mentally demanding work.” Theirs is indeed a formidable task, as the IDF Rabbinate requires 100% verification, in accordance with the policies set by IDF Chief Rabbi Eyal Krim.

Rabbi Shmuel and Tali Slotki (Photo: Naama Greenbaum)

"We are at the end of a complex year," the rabbi said at the award ceremony. "On one hand, a lot of pain and difficulty; on the other hand, many joys and seeing the good. We married off two sons, and in three days we are marrying another daughter. This year, along with the great difficulty, there are many points of light. The more we manage to see the good and the light, the better we can cope."

When asked how he and his wife imbued their sons with the strength and sense of mission to voluntarily put their lives on the line, he deflects and says, “I don’t think it's just the education from home, but the education of 120 years of Zionism. We were given the opportunity in our generation to be responsible for our fate. We must not be passive, we must take active responsibility. This is the feeling that accompanies our generation, the generation in which our sons grew up—and we must continue in their ways."