Edition No.49
Sept. 2006 – Oct. 2006
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NEWSLETTER INDEX

A Tribute to Assaf Namer æ"ì
May his memory be blessed

In our last edition, Edition 48, we wept together with Assaf's family upon learning that he was one of eight soldiers killed in Bing Jbail, southern Lebanon. Thanks to the Australian Jewish News, here is a tribute to his life.

FROM BONDI TO BATTALION 51:
'I'm heading into Lebanon, dad'
 (The Australian Jewish News, Sydney Edition, 4.8.2006, pg.4, by Tovah Lazaroff) 

HAIFA – Though he was required to serve in the army for six months, Sergeant Assaf Namer volunteered to serve for two years.
                Namer's uncle, Motka Nave, who delivered the eulogy at the funeral in Haifa on Sunday, said of his nephew: "His whole family where fighters in the army. He joined the army as a fighter. And so, we lost him in the battle."
                Namer's father, Tzachi Namer, missed watching his son grow up so that his ex-wife Eva could raise him in Sydney, Australia, far away from the violence that plagues life in Israel.
                It was a sacrifice made in vain because on Wednesday afternoon last week Tzachi's worst fears were realized when Assaf was one of eight soldiers killed in the battle at Bing Jbail in southern Lebanon.
"I knew he would be killed," Tzachi told the Jerusalem Post last Friday. The phone call from his sister upon his return from work on Wednesday informing him that Assi was gone came as no surprise to Tzachi, who had anticipated this nightmare.
                He recalled how a conversation with Assaf the Thursday prior to his death had already left him in tears. The pair had a joking routine on the phone in which Tzachi would ask, "How are you, boy?" and Assaf would say, "I'm fine, what's with you man?" This time, Tzachi recalled, after stammering, Assaf said, "To put it simply, I'm heading to Lebanon."
               "When I put the phone down, I cried because I knew Assi would be killed," recalled Tzachi. He was right.
               Tzachi had hoped to avoid this scenario when Assaf left for Australia following the Gulf War at age 11 with his mother and older sister. While all the members of their family were born in Israel, Eva opted to start a new life there because her brother had moved to Australia. "I was happy they went there," said Tzachi. "I wanted my children to live in a normal country where the biggest disaster was a fire or a hurricane and where you didn't have to spend three years in the army."
                The son of a Holocaust survivor from Romania, who served in the Israeli Army himself, Tzachi said that he felt his family had already paid its dues to the country. But his son , who loved sports and music, felt otherwise. In an interview with the Triple J radio before his departure in 2004 (appearing in Edition 48- Ed.), Assaf said that he enlisted even though it meant leaving his mother behind.
                He said he felt he had missed out on an important experience. "It's almost an identity crisis type of thing. I live half of my life in Australia and half of my life in Israel. When I am in Australia I don't quite feel 100 per cent Australian and when I am in Israel, I don't feel 100 per cent Israeli," he told the radio station at the time.
                 "The fact that I didn't do it [join the IDF] when I was 18 just makes me want to do it more," Assaf said.
                  Assaf insisted on spending two years in a combat unit. He was due to be released any day.             JERUSALEM POST

Tributes for 'hero'
(The Australian Jewish News, Sydney Edition, 4.8.2006, pg.5, by Lorin Blumenthal)

THE death of 26-year-old Sergeant Assaf Namer has sent shockwaves through the  Jewish community, especially his friends from Moriah College.
                His mother Eva and sister Karin flew to Israel last Thursday evening for the funeral, after receiving a phone call from Assaf's father, Tzachi Namer, at 5am telling them he had been in a Hezbollah ambush in southern Lebanon.
                "There is nothing you can do when terrorists are hiding between innocent people.They are such cowards they have to hide behind civilians and children," his sister Karin told the AJN before departing last Thursday. "When I am in Israel I want to speak to other soldiers and find out exactly what happened to my brother."
                Assaf's cousin, Jonathan Morgenstern, 19, attended a memorial service at Moriah College last Friday on behalf of the Namer and Morgenstern families. He told the AJN:"Assaf was always there for me when I needed help…and we shared a lot. I was shocked by the news. I remember walking around my house in a daze," he said.

Assaf Namer (back left) with
mother Eva (bottom left)
and his relatives from the 
Morgenstern family in a
recent family photo taken in Sydney

Also attending the memorial service was Kerry Baranov, who had known Segeant Namer since high school. "The last time I saw Assaf was three months before he went to Israel…He loved the Prodigy, he never drank and he was very vocal about the things he was passionate about. On any given day you would find him on the Bondi Public School basketball courts. He was shy on the outside but he had a way of pleasing people," she said.
                Another friend, Danny Senecky, who was too distraught to take part in the memorial service, told the AJN: "Assaf was a true friend – always there with a funny story and a smile. We are all very proud of him and are indebted to him for his selfless bravery. He will be dearly missed by everyone who knew him."
                Moriah College held another prayer service for alumni on Tuesday morning in which close friend Julian Frumar delivered a tribute. Another friend, Robert Sheslow, said: "When God created the concept of a mench, he had Assaf in mind." 

'He died so we can keep living'
 (The Australian Jewish News, Sydney Edition, 4.8.2006, pg.5) 

Richard Harkham met Assaf Namer on his first day at Moriah College, and continued to be his good friend. He spoke to LEXI LANDSMAN about his loss.
                WHEN Assaf Namer joined Moriah College in 1992, Richard Harkham was asked to look after him on his first day.
                "He couldn't speak a word of English," Harkham, 27, recalled this week. "My family is also Israel and so I could relate to him on many levels, and from that day on we had a bond. He knew my family and we spent our school years together. We even had our first beer together."
                Harkham said he was shocked when he heard the news of Sergeant Namer's death in southern Lebanon last week.
                "When I first heard about Assaf, it didn't hit me. I couldn't believe it. This is someone who for five years of my life played basketball with me every morning."
                "Assaf was a fighter, even in basketball," he recalled. "When Assaf wanted to do something, he was there all the way. I spent my primitive years of growing up with this guy. He was a family person and he worked so hard. He was the first one in our year to get a car."
                He said news of his friend's death was deeply personal.
                "Assaf's death brings the struggle back home. It makes this struggle a more personal one. And it makes me angry that we have to fight to live. Assaf didn't die for a bad cause, he died for the most important cause. He died so that we can keep living our lives the way we have been. He didn't have to, but he chose to."
                Harkham said hearing of the death of his friend was as frightening as it was real.
                "It's a very scary feeling, you watch the news at home and you hear that soldiers are dying and everyone frets. But I believe in the cause and I believe in what we are doing.
                 "We all believe in the State of Israel. We all believe in the cause. But we are not fighting. He was on the front line."