An emotional memorial ceremony at HIT honoring its deceased students

The National Memorial Days' annual ceremony was dedicated this year to the memory of one of the first HIT's class of 1973 graduates, the late Zvi Heller, who was killed in the Yom Kippur War.

Photo: Dina Staskovich

In a very moving ceremony, which was held at the institute, in the presence of HIT's President and CEO, faculty members, students, class of 1973 graduates and the family of the late Zvi Heller, HIT commemorated its students who were killed in their military service:

Sergeant major Barak Madmon, studied at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

killed on 24.11.2001

Major Ami Weiss, studied at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

killed on 28.11.15.

Captain Eliav Gelman, studied at the Faculty of Learning Technologies.

killed on 24.12.16

Photo: Dina Staskovich

The memorial ceremony was dedicated this year to the late Zvi Heller, who was one of HIT's first class graduates and was killed in the Yom Kippur War on January 17, 1974.

His widow, Hannah Heller, and his sister, Erela Denmark, spoke with Tamar Shmueli in an emotional conversation about Zvi, the stations of his life and his family.

Photo: Dina Staskovich

Michal Chill and Danny Engel accompanied the ceremony with music.

Photo: Dina Staskovich

Zvi was born in Romania in 1945 to Holocaust surviving parents.

The family immigrated to Israel in 1958.

Already in high school, Zvi was attracted to the field of electricity and electronics, and chose this track at the ORT Netanya School. Upon graduation he enlisted in the Army and served in the Navy.

After his military service, he studied at the Naval Officers' School in Acre and worked as an officer on naval ships and later in the Israeli trader Zim. After years of cruising around the world, Zvi chose to study electricity and electronics at HIT which was then a newly established institute.

Zvi was a warm and loving person, pleasant, sociable with exceptional concentration abilities. He was curious, thirsty for knowledge and was convinced that electricity and electronics are the basis for future technological development in many fields. During his studies, Zvi married Hanna and late was a father to his only son Ido.

At the end of the four years of studies and the final exams, Zvi was hired by "Elbit Systems", but then the 73' war broke out. In Yom Kippur he was drafted into the artillery reserve corps and assigned to a battalion stationed in the area of Lake Hamar in Sinai.

On Sukkot, a few days after his enlistment, Zvi was seriously injured in an aerial bombardment of Egyptian planes and was evacuated by helicopter to Tel Hashomer Hospital, where he lay wounded for about three months.

Despite the medical efforts, he died on January 17, 1974.

Photo: Dina Staskovich

At the end of the memorial ceremony, everybody were invited to the unveiling of the name plate of the Final Projects Lab of the Faculty of Engineering and Electronics, which was named after Zvi Heller. His classmates were the ones who decided to commemorate him in this way and the management of the institute responded to this moving tribute.

Zvi's son, Ido Heller, expressed the family's deep gratitude for the moving gesture and noted that this lab, which connects theory and practice, is the beating heart of the technological endeavor and that he is happy that the students who will work in it will be able to get to know his father through the plate on the wall that tells his story.