Everyone's hero

Last year, a team of Hebrew University researchers, together with a group of German scholars, set out to find whether Israeli high school students still believed in the "Israeli hero" -- a person they know who embodies heroism to them.

In response to their inquiries, the researchers heard only one name -- Roi Klein, the beloved and highly decorated deputy commander who was killed in Lebanon after jumping on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers.

"We live in a post-modern world, in an anti-pantheon age that rejects heroes," says Professor Gad Yair of the Hebrew University Department of Sociology and Anthropology, one of the researchers on the team and the author of the book "The Code of Israeliness: The Ten Commandments for the 21st Century." "All of a sudden, in absolute agreement, the modest but perfect figure of Roi Klein pops into everyone's mind. The youth don't want to revere leaders -- not [Theodor] Herzl or [Menachem] Begin or [David] Ben-Gurion. They want to realistically identify with people who are closer to them. Roi Klein was a living myth."

Nearly a decade after the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Roi Klein is alive and well. He is a modern-day Joseph Trumpeldor who lives among us, as a part of our generation, and we are able to closely examine the fibers and document the intensity of his influence in real time. The officer from the Golani Brigade became a mythological hero: He pounced on a live grenade to save his soldiers, declared his own death ("Klein is dead," he said over military radio after sustaining the explosion), and while he lay in his own blood, he recited the Shema Yisrael prayer. The kingdom's fallen, and all the angels pray with him in our heads.

Memorials honoring Klein can be found across the nation, in every sector of society. An elementary school in Netanya, a computer center at the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Center in Raanana, a park at the Har Dov military base, a high school in Raanana, a playground in Samaria, a building in the Old City in Jerusalem, an Israeli Scouts troop in Beit Zayit, a beit midrash at Ariel University, a library in Raanana, a learning center in Eli, a neighborhood in the Galilee, a square in Givat Shmuel -- all these are only a few sites that bear his name, alongside the countless Torah scrolls that were written in his honor. There are also hundreds of children in Israel who were named after him.

Two years ago, Talma Eligon Ross added a verse to a song she had written about the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue operation and the death of war hero Yoni Netanyahu and dedicated it to Klein's memory. Israeli singer Yehoram Gaon recorded a new version of the song that included the added verse.

The story of the life and death of the courageous commander has been told and retold a thousand times at lectures, workshops, lessons and presentations. It was told at the screening of the documentary film about him, "With All Your Soul." It is featured in the popular Shema Yisrael workshops provided by the Education Ministry. It has been told in elementary schools, high schools, the IDF and of course in pre-military training courses. It has been told across Israel and in the Diaspora. The intensity and frequency with which it is told has never faded.

Leadership vacuum? Post-pantheon age? Zionist nostalgia? Shortage of inspiring figures? A man whose name has become bigger than he was? A role model? Indescribable heroism? Turns out all that we needed was Roi Klein.

* * *

Bint Jbeil, Lebanon. July 26, 2006. The third week of the Second Lebanon War. Maj. Roi Klein, deputy commander of 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade, almost 31 years old from the community of Eli, married and father to two children, leads his troops into a building in the center of the village with the aim of carrying out an ambush. During the attempt to take the structure, the team's scouts get caught in an olive grove surrounded by stone walls. When Hezbollah fighters surprise the troops and open heavy fire, surrounding the olive grove, the walled-off area becomes hell.

The troops were attacked from behind, from the sides, with heavy fire, without being able to see the enemy. The Golani soldiers waged a heroic fight -- the worst battle of the war -- for a full 11 hours. At the end of the battle, eight IDF fighters and commanders had been killed and 25 were wounded.

Former Golani Brigade commander Moshe (Chico) Tamir has described Klein's decision to enter the battleground as no less heroic than the act of jumping on a grenade. Klein knew how to read the map, and he knew very well that he may not survive. The circumstances were abysmal. There were assessments that soldiers or bodies had been abducted. Klein did not wait for backup or air force support. He ran in with his radio in an effort to stabilize the situation.

Ultimately, the battle turned into a victory. IDF troops killed 40 of Hezbollah's special forces unit. The 51st Battalion and 17 of its soldiers were awarded decorations for their bravery in that battle. The first grenade rolled up to Klein's feet at dawn, while he was in that damned olive grove. He managed to skip over it and gain enough distance that he was not hurt when it detonated. Then, Lt. Amichai Merhavia was critically wounded by gunfire and a grenade explosion. Klein and his troops put Merhavia on a gurney and prepared, under fire, to evacuate him.

As they lifted the gurney, another grenade was lobbed at them. It landed at Klein's feet, near a wall. In a split second decision, Klein lay down on the grenade and covered it with his body. The grenade went off and wounded Klein critically. He reported his own death over the radio, saying "Klein is dead," and then recited the eternal mantra of the people of Israel. But Klein had yet to be reclaimed by his creator. In the minutes that followed, as his troops approached him to assist him, he commanded them to focus their efforts on Merhavia. When they tried to administer first aid, he yelled at them to go to Merhavia, ordering them to evacuate his comrade first. With his last remaining strength, he handed his encoded radio to another officer, who took over the command of the force.

Sgt. Shimon Adega, Staff Sgt. Shimon Dahan, Staff Sgt. Edan Cohen, Lt. Amichai Merhavia, Cpl. Assaf Namer, Cpl. Ohad Klausner, Maj. Roi Klein and Lt. Alexander Shwartzman were killed that day in Bint Jbeil.

'A contribution to the collective'

"Roi's courage was greater than the myth," says Moshe Merhavia, the father of Lt. Amichai Merhavia who was killed in that olive grove next to Klein. "It goes far beyond the grenade and the Shema Yisrael. The soldiers drop Amichai's gurney and move over to Klein and he tells them 'take Merhavia.'

"His injuries are terrible and he remains focused on the mission, with extraordinary self-control. He has shattered legs and commands his soldiers to leave him. Even lifting his arm to hand his deputy the radio requires enormous strength. It took another 30 minutes before he died, but the myth kind of ended before that point."

Merhavia the father has actually conducted the most in-depth research ever done into the battle of Bint Jbeil. He pored over Golani Brigades briefs, pathology reports and soldiers' stories and then cross-referenced all the information. He published the results of his investigation in a book titled "The Battle of Bint Jbeil," which he handed out to the soldiers who took part in the battle and to the bereaved families of the fallen. His findings evolved into a presentation that he gives at military courses. The presentation includes only two sentences about his son. The rest is purely about the battle.

Q: Eight fighters were killed in that battle and the only one people remember is Klein. Your son, too, remains in his shadow.

"No way, not in his shadow. When you lose a son it doesn't matter if he was a hero or not. The battle went on for 11 hours, even after Klein was no longer able to command. But people need to pick a hero so they can tell the story. And yes, Klein was certainly a hero. You can't talk about everything, because then you end up saying nothing. You can't write about everyone, but Klein, it is impossible to write enough about him. I wish there were more people like Klein. The upbringing that he received at home and in the Eli seminar paved his path."

At the beginning of his presentation, Merhavia tells the soldiers that the story of the battle of Bint Jbeil has the power to save lives if they are wise enough to learn from it. "Today's soldiers, who were eight years old during that war, have no memory of that time. Soon it will be like the [1948] War of Independence. There is plenty to learn.

"The unit was caught off guard because they didn't know the enemy in front of them. Contrary to any logical assessment, the [Hezbollah] force came from behind, from the same direction that the IDF soldiers came -- the area that was more open. When they encountered a terrorist, they thought he was part of a small cell. They didn't know that they were facing a well-organized military company. The battle was fought from a position of weakness, and they ultimately gained control.

"It is hard to describe Roi's courageousness in its entirety, because the story tends to stop with him jumping on the grenade, even though the courage was there both before and after that event. For example, it is not clear that it was his duty, as deputy battalion commander, to go into the battleground. Klein could have legitimately sent someone ranked well below him, but he went in himself. He arrived, and immediately understood what he had to do. Leading by example, when commanders go first into battle -- that is the strength of the IDF.

"Even before this battle, Klein did things that were worthy of appreciation, and he often received it. Five years prior, he was given a citation for outstanding service in an ambush near Nablus. His troops come to me because it is important for them to know that he conducted himself in Bint Jbeil in the same way that he behaved in other operations."

Q: Do we need Klein and what he represents-

"In the beginning, after the War of Independence, Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel was very modest. Nothing more than a few services at military cemeteries. Ever since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, something changed in Israeli society. The emotional aspect was given more space. There were those who took it to a place that actually weakened us, for political reasons, but the bright side is that the memory now encompasses all of Israeli society."

"Klein's act was the highest manifestation of the value of camaraderie," explains Professor Yair. "It is not to give your life to your prime minister, but to give your life to save your friends that serve with you. This has resonated since the days of the [pre-state] Palmach. It is a deep-seated cultural code imprinted into Israeli society. It is viewed as the Zionist thing to do, much like the tenets of never leaving the wounded behind or adhering to the mission at hand. These are the foundations of the IDF code.

"Klein," Yair goes on to say, "represents a generation that has already been denigrated as having no values or backbone. Every generation has the sense of being an elite without worthy heirs. Ben-Gurion was revered because he created something out of nothing, but the generation of Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan looked at [successors Yitzhak] Rabin and [Shimon] Peres as inadequate substitutes. Today, we look at our current leaders and question whether they have what it takes to fill the enormous shoes of Rabin and Peres. The fact is, however, that every generation improves on the previous one."

"Just look at how the contribution to the collective is thriving. The youth movements are flourishing, there is demand for more spots in pre-military service programs -- more spots than the Education Ministry can financially maintain -- the urban kibbutzim, the continuation groups of the pioneer youth movements, the religious and secular populations that are fighting to preserve Zionist values, youths who embark on 'Israeli' journeys. Klein gave the most precious contribution to the collective."

Humility and tikkun olam

Klein was born and raised in Raanana. He was a beautiful boy, but shy. He was a third child. He succeeded at everything he did. He played the saxophone and the piano, he learned the tropes of Torah reading and could read every portion. He excelled at basketball and volleyball. He completed his matriculation in maths in the 11th grade and began his university degree in mathematics while he was still in high school. He was the Raanana chess champion and had exceptional acting skills and a fabulous sense of humor. He was active in the Bnei Akiva youth movement and loved to hike Israel's many nature trails. He also volunteered at the Raanana immigrant absorption center.

After high school he entered the Bnei David pre-military academy in Eli. He served as a soldier and then a commander in the Egoz unit in the IDF and then returned to Eli for another year of school. When he was asked to come back and serve in the IDF as a career soldier, he complied. He received his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering and management as part of his military career. Upon earning his degree, he was promoted to the post of deputy commander of the 51st Battalion.

At age 26 he met Sarah, born in Denmark. They married and had two boys, Gilad and Yoav. It is impossible to fully understand Klein's spiritual worldview without reading the letter he hand wrote to his wife Sarah a week before their nuptials.

"Dear Sarah, my future wife, my home. God willing, we will build an eternal home, an Israeli home resting on Israeli ideals, resting on Israeli thoughts and feelings: to be honest with God. Resting on love, brotherhood, peace and camaraderie. Resting on unity. Resting on the knowledge, the feeling and complete faith that 'this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.' Resting on the expectation of redemption and salvation of Israel. Resting on the fact that Israeli strength is the cornerstone of the entire nation. Resting on responsibility in this generation, a generation of ikvot hamashiach [the footsteps of the messiah, or the difficult times before the messiah comes], at every step, with every advance, with every victory in building this home. Resting on purity and modesty. Resting on humility and capitulation to the Israeli ideal. Love you without limits, Roi."

Klein's widow recently married Rabbi Yigal Levenstein, one of Roi's teachers at the Bnei David pre-military academy.

Roi's family declined to be interviewed for this article.

Ron Segal, the chairman of the Raanana parents' committee, which organizes regular workshops commemorating Klein at the city's schools, says that "at school, Roi is presented as an individual; they are not only taught about the battle in which he was killed. Sixth graders sing the song El Eretz Tzvi with the new verse [about Klein], while someone who actually fought alongside Klein is standing right in front of them. I can't think of many things that are more moving than that.

"We are secular Jews, and it is important to us to communicate the message," Segal explains. "The people of Israel are still at war for their very existence. Nothing can be taken for granted. Klein is a true example of someone who grew up here in the city, not a hundred years ago but in this day and age, and his father comes to meet with the students. The kids take away much more than just the story of the battle."

Eyal Wittenberg, who fought alongside Klein in Lebanon, now gives lectures at schools and various organizations. "We enlisted together," he recalls. "His military ID number is seven digits after mine. We were together from day one in the army. The older I get, the better I understand his virtues and abilities. They don't make them like that. I talk about him with young people who were barely born during that war. I talk about courage, determination, leadership, friendship and coping with challenges.

"When I enter a classroom, everyone's faces are buried in their phones. When I finish, they refuse to let me leave. People are in need of heroes, so there are heroes in sports, music, fashion, and then there are timeless heroes like Roi. As a secular Jew, I feel that the values on which he was raised led him to commit a heroic act. Perhaps deep inside him he prepared himself for such a possibility," Wittenberg says.

Klein has come to symbolize all that is good about Israelis not only locally but also among Jewish communities overseas. Synagogues and babies are often named after him. His story often comes up in sermons. "Klein fulfills the requirement of tikkun olam that is very popular in the Diaspora," says Ilan Friedman of the Jewish Agency. "Tikkun olam to the point of giving your life for the benefit of others. It is not just his death that is a topic of discussion. They talk about his life. He is the undisputed leading hero of Israel's wars. His value system is a source of inspiration."

'Like a spotlight on the man'

The IDF's short history is littered with countless heroes who demonstrated extraordinary courage. Up until last summer, 2,126 soldiers were honored for outstanding service and bravery. The highest honor is the Medal of Valor, which has only been awarded to 40 individuals. This medal was discontinued after the Yom Kippur War. The Medal of Courage has been awarded to 218 soldiers and 606 soldiers have received the Medal of Distinguished Service. The rest received citations. Only a handful have intentionally sacrificed their lives to save fellow soldiers, like exposing themselves to enemy fire as a diversion or jumping on a live grenade.

Three instances of soldiers who gave their lives by lying down on grenades to save their friends have been documented. In 1954 Nathan Elbaz jumped on a grenade after it was accidentally activated during routine actions on base. He was killed, but he saved everyone around him. During the 1956 Operation Kadesh in Sinai, Ovad Ladizinsky was killed by a grenade explosion as he protected another soldier with his body. And Roi Klein. In the world, there are several recorded instances of such heroic acts, starting with the Vietnam War.

Immediately after the battle of Bint Jbeil, as the wounded were being evacuated, the story of the grenade began to emerge. On the morning of Klein's funeral, the day after the fight, headlines began to appear in the daily newspapers: "The deputy commander jumped on a grenade." No one knew back then how deeply ingrained the story would become in the collective Israeli memory.

I asked Rabbi Netanel Elyashiv, a good friend of Klein's, if it was clear from the start that the story had the makings of a legend. The two grew up together in Raanana, went to school together and attended the same youth movement. Later, as married men, both lived in Eli. "From the very start we sensed that one of us had become a figure," Elyashiv says. "Yoni Netanyahu was one of the mythological heroes we grew up on. We transcribed his letters onto the walls at the Bnei Akiva branch. Suddenly, one of us had become just like that. Roi became a part of the song about Yoni.

"When I tell people I was friends with Roi Klein, they immediately lower their gaze. The larger the myth grows, the harder it becomes to talk about Roi the man. All my childhood memories have Roi in the background. I don't feel like he's really dead, just that I haven't seen him in a while. He is still a good friend of mine who just isn't present right now.

"He had his weaknesses. He faced difficulties during his military career. But everything people say about his virtues is true. It is not an exaggeration. Roi was brilliant, almost a genius. There are not a lot of people like that in field units. He opted to forgo academics and went for something that was very physical. He decided to compete in an arena where he didn't have the intellectual advantage, with the aim of contributing to the state where he was needed.

"Alongside his noble qualities, he was also quite a clown. He was full of humor. To have become a figure that people are in awe of would have embarrassed him and made him laugh."

Elyashiv goes on to say, "I cautiously believe that when teens visit the Mount Herzl cemetery they stop next to Roi's grave more often than Herzl's grave. One time I saw a group there, and I heard the tour guide talk about Roi and get his facts wrong. I debated whether or not to intervene. When I told the group that I knew him, everyone grew silent and serious. Suddenly you begin to realize that even Trumpeldor was a person."

Q: There are countless stories of heroism throughout Israel's wars. What is it about this story that overshadows the rest-

"We are living in an age when people have trouble believing in things. Anyone with power is seen as working an angle. There is nothing pure, and Roi's story is as pure as they come. He gave everything, in a clean, objective way. It corresponds to a profound need."

Q: There was a split-second decision there.

"True, but if it boiled down to just jumping on a grenade, I don't think that it would have resonated to this day or 100 years from now. The thing that touched people so deeply was the entire value system that guided him. His act was like shining a spotlight that makes everyone look at one person. He didn't just die honoring God, he also lived honoring God.

"After you take away the spotlight, the trigger for the act of heroism, you see a personality full of humility and gentleness. It is not what you expect to see when you hear about exceptional heroism in battle. You don't expect a humble man, for whom studying the Torah was a top priority. He was a unique model. I know about other people who threw themselves on live grenades -- two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan -- but their personalities were something different.

"During battle, people operate on the assumption that they will get out alive. The more near misses you experience, the more you feel invincible and believe that you have a special shield. This characterizes acts of heroism. But Roi had to make a decision that almost certainly would end his life. Many people exhibit devotion, but not many can make this most difficult decision. Our instinct is survival. Ninety-something percent of people, in a situation like that, would not have had the courage to make that decision."

Elyashiv points to Klein's Shema Yisrael prayer as a central factor in his becoming a mythological figure. "Crying out 'Shema' served to reconnect nationalism with Judaism. It was different than the other stories of heroism and other Zionist myths. At the dawn of Zionism, there was an artificial separation: Every man had to choose whether he was nationalist-Zionist or religious. It turns out that these two qualities actually complement one another, and they actually meld into one. That is why Roi became a hero among the ultra-Orthodox public as well. They have trouble finding common ground with the macho Israeli from the 101st division who kills terrorists. But they can easily identify with a Jew who cried out 'Shema Yisrael' in his final moments."

After Klein was killed, an ultra-Orthodox businessman popped up and promised to publish a book in his memory that would contain sermons written by the greatest ultra-Orthodox figures in Israel. Klein's peers in Eli were skeptical. They did not believe that these stringent rabbis would contribute their work to a book about a soldier. But the businessman lived up to his word and enlisted the greatest rabbis for the project. The book, titled "With All Your Soul," is very popular in the ultra-Orthodox sector. Another religious book in Klein's memory, "With All your Heart," is also rather successful among the ultra-Orthodox and has even been translated into English.

'The necessary decision'

Professor Asa Kasher, one of the authors of the IDF's ethical code, is not convinced that Klein's story is so perfect or that it should be made into an example of how to behave. "People think that they know the story. The public jumps to conclusions. They know half truths. Eighth truths. Can they responsibly say what Klein's options were? Was it the right reaction to the circumstances-" Kasher wonders.

"It cost him his life, and it raises a lot of emotions and thoughts. But was it the right thing? Perhaps there was something else he could have done that would have served as a better example? There is a tendency to gravitate toward the extreme in public discourse -- to describe things as extremely positive or extremely negative. We only have part of the full picture but that is enough for people crown heroes."

Q: Does a man who sacrificed his life to save others not deserve to be crowned a hero?

"When a doctor approached Trumpeldor and asked him how he was, Trumpeldor quoted a Latin text that says that there is nothing sweeter than to die for one's country. Immediately afterward, he asked when they were going to transfer him to Kfar Giladi to treat his injuries. He didn't want to die. He wanted medical attention. It is sometimes necessary to die for one's country, but it is far better to live for it. It is good to live."

Q: When a pilot infiltrates Syrian airspace he is risking his life for the sake of others. That is something that the army encourages.

"I don't want to see soldiers being educated to make sacrifices. They have to consider the risks, and they have to be willing instinctively to enter into dangerous situations, but every soldier hopes, as do we, that they will emerge from the danger in one piece. They are not supposed to be taught to sacrifice themselves. They are supposed to be taught to exhibit courage, which means doing things that are dangerous and difficult but not necessarily deadly. We educate to take risks, not to die.

"Sacrifice is a radical act," Kasher clarifies. "A pilot that enters Syria takes a risk. He doesn't sacrifice himself. That is an enormous difference. It is not nuance. These are actions that culminate in a mission well done, not death. Every pilot hopes to make it out alive. The mission is in fact to get home safely. The safety of the soldiers is the commander's top priority. If a commander encourages his soldiers to sacrifice their lives, the soldiers become nothing more than a resource. He has fuel, shells and soldiers. That is not how things should operate. It does not uphold human dignity. That is not how people, created in the image of God, should be treated. Sometimes it is imperative to put a soldier at risk to protect civilians in the homefront, but the assumption should never be that the soldier will die."

Unlike Kasher, Maj. Gen. Gershon Hacohen stresses that "Klein acted instinctively. He didn't assess the situation, but he was aware. There is a myth-busting trend nowadays. People like to say that Trumpeldor didn't really say that 'it is good to die for your country,' and that Hannah Szenes wasn't motivated by a sense of duty but rather by wanting to escape the kitchen in her home in Kibbutz Sdot Yam.

"Hannah Szenes," Hacohen says, "who wrote, 'a voice called to me and I went because the voice called,' was truly motivated by those voices, and certainly Trumpeldor and Roi Klein, in a moment of instinct, were motivated by years-long ideology."

"Of course the IDF doesn't teach its soldiers to jump on grenades," Eliyashiv chimes in on Kasher's sentiments. "When Roi and his soldiers were on their way to the olive grove, a grenade hit them, and Roi kicked it out of the way. He was a man who loved life. I fear the day when someone sees a grenade and says, 'Let's jump on it.' That is not the way. We don't sanctify death, we sanctify life. Roi found himself in a rare and unusual situation, and there is nothing harder than the situation he faced, where the choice is between dying and saving others and living and saving no one.

"There were at least three soldiers who were saved thanks to that decision. The grenade was 20 centimeters (8 inches) from him. They had no more than four and a half seconds before the grenade would explode. Someone had already pulled the pin and threw the grenade, so at least three seconds had passed. He had one second to make a decision. The lethal range of a grenade is about 8 meters (26 feet). As fast as he may have been, no one can run eight meters in one second. There was no way to survive. I cannot end this conversation without clarifying the situation. It was the necessary decision, the right decision."

Roi Klein is a legend who lives on by the power of his story. He is a symbol that cultivates Zionism. He is the modern day hero. But he is not a fable or a fairy tale. He is a real human being.

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