Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Thousands Attend Funeral of Fallen IDF Soldier Hadar Goldin

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.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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.