Thousands Flock to Mount Herzl to Mourn Oleh’s Senseless Murder

Yehoshua Friedberg had one more week left to finish his period of voluntary service in the Israeli army.

But sometime on March 7, as the 24-year-old Canadian immigrant hitchhiked from his Jerusalem yeshiva to an army base near Tel Aviv, Friedberg apparently was kidnapped by Palestinian extremists who would later kill him by shooting him three times through the heart.

Although treated by his captors ignominiously — his body dumped on the side of the highway — Friedberg was buried Monday with the honors of an Israeli war hero on Mount Herzl, as an outraged nation mourned his loss and throngs of emotionally distraught Israelis mobbed his funeral.

In the early afternoon, traffic in parts of Jerusalem came to a virtual standstill as thousands made their way from Friedberg’s yeshiva up to the nation’s military cemetery on Mount Herzl.

Friedberg’s brutal murder came as one of a series of Palestinian attacks on Israelis this month that have driven the nation into a state of shock about a deteriorating security situation.

Friedberg, raised in Montreal, came to Israel two years ago in fulfillment of a dream cemented years earlier by a religious education, friends said at his funeral.

According to the family rabbi, Mordecai Zeitz, the young immigrant had “a million reasons” not to enter the army, including bad knees.

“But he felt he was an Israeli and therefore he should live up to his obligations like anyone else,” Zeitz said at the funeral.

Friedberg did more than that. Instead of doing the normal four months of service in the army’s hesder program, combining army service and religious study, he committed to nine months.

‘HIS LIFE WAS HERE’

Moved by grief as well as anger at Palestinian violence, a crowd of over of 7,000 men, women and children climbed Mount Herzl, some over rock walls, scraping hands and ripping clothes, in order to catch a glimpse of the coffin draped in the blue-and-white flag of Israel.

Friedberg’s death was deeply mourned among his friends in the army’s elite Golani Brigade.

“You were one of the best of us, a born leader,” said his army commander, identified only as Lt. Col. Koby.

As the crowd of thousands waited in silence for the burial service to begin, a young soldier buried his head in the chest of a friend and sobbed uncontrollably.

Among the masses were many Canadians who came to pay their respects, as well as his family from Montreal.

A light rain began as tears flowed freely among the mourners. The air was cold as Israel Defense Force soldiers stood at attention and Friedberg was interred with full military honors.

Interviewed on television, Hubert Friedberg said his son’s ardent bond with Israel prompted the family to bury him here instead of Montreal.

“Even though it is far away, we knew his life was here,” the father said.