Thousands Attend Funeral of Fallen IDF Soldier Hadar Goldin

Grieving Family:Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon comforts Leah Goldin, mother of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin who was killed in action on Friday. Image by Getty Images
Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Lt. Hadar Goldin, the soldier who was declared dead after first being feared kidnapped.
Friends and family of Goldin, along with ordinary Israelis, converged on the military cemetery in Kfar Saba, in central Israel, for the rite on Sunday afternoon.
“I didn’t expect you to leave me so quickly,” Goldin’s fiancee, Edna Sarusi, said in a eulogy.
She told the mourners that Goldin was very easy going when planning their wedding, saying, “All I want Edna is that you be a bride.”
“I so wanted to be your bride, Hadar,” she said.
The Israel Defense Forces had announced early that morning that Goldin was killed in action, saying its determination was based on an analysis of what took place on the battlefield, a medical review, Jewish legal considerations and other considerations. Though his body was not recovered, partial remains were buried at the cemetery.
Goldin’s twin brother, Tzur, also spoke at the funeral. The brothers had served at the same time as combat soldiers and trained together as officers.
“We were two that lived together and will never be divided,” Tzur Goldin said. “Your life is mine and mine is yours.”
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who announced in a tweet earlier Monday that he was related to Goldin and had known him his whole life, attended the funeral but did not speak.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the soldier’s parents, Simcha and Leah Goldin, prior to the funeral. “Hadar was a tremendous personality, a great hero. I know that you are going through terrible agony, the feeling that a part of you has been taken away and you are no longer whole,” Netanayhu said, according to a statement from his office.
“This is pain that has no relief, not even for a moment.
“I hope that you will find consolation in the fact that he fell to uphold the people of Israel in the struggle for our independence.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.