Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

American Parents of Slain Lone Soldier Mourn — 10 Years Later

JERUSALEM — The parents of Michael Levin, a lone soldier from the United States who was killed in the Second Lebanon War, returned to Israel to mark the 10th anniversary of his death.

Mark and Harriet Levin of Philadelphia traveled to Mount Herzl on Thursday to mark their son’s yahrzeit. They were joined by other immigrant soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade in which their son had served.

Levin fell in battle at Aita al-Shaab on Aug. 1, 2006, at 22. He left a furlough with his family at home in Pennsylvania in order to rejoin his unit and cross into Lebanon.

Levin’s dream had been to create centers for lone soldiers to assist them; today there are three such centers that bear his name. More than 6,000 lone soldiers from around the world are currently serving the Israeli army.

“I think about him every day,” Mark Levin told The Jerusalem Post. “We love him, we miss him, we’re very proud of his service here, and we are proud that we were able to support his dreams and make them come true.”

Also Thursday, the Lone Soldier Center opened its new building in downtown Jerusalem.

The centers offer services including laundry, assistance in moving, Shabbat meals, counseling, paperwork and bill paying, while also providing recreational activities.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.