Israeli helicopter disaster to be remembered at Yom HaZikaron, Israeli Remembrance Day, May 3 in Milwaukee | Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

Israeli helicopter disaster to be remembered at Yom HaZikaron, Israeli Remembrance Day, May 3 in Milwaukee    

 

Twenty-five years ago, tragically, there was a collision of two Israeli Air Force transport helicopters ferrying Israeli soldiers. These lives and others will be remembered on May 3 in Milwaukee.  

The Milwaukee Jewish community will honor Israel’s victims of terror, fallen soldiers and veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and other Israeli security services, to mark Yom HaZikaron, at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.  

The guest speaker will be Shulamit “Shuli” Mualem-Rafaeli, an Israeli nurse and past member of the Knesset. In 1997, her husband Moshe was one of 73 Israeli soldiers killed in what is known as the “helicopter disaster.”   

Two helicopters landed to pick up soldiers, to transport them to their posts in southern Lebanon. The helicopters then collided near the Lebanese border and there were no survivors. 

After her husband’s death, Mualem-Rafaelid served as deputy and acting chairman of the Israeli Defense Forces Widows and Orphans organization. Mualem-Rafaelid wrote several posthumous letters to her husband, which were published in a book, “My beloved Mualem.”   

The co-chairs of the event are Bobbi Rector and Peter Klein. Event organizers are the JCC and Milwaukee Jewish Federation. 

The remembrance will be held Thursday, May 3, 6 p.m., at the JCC. Learn more and register to attend at MilwaukeeJewish.org/Yamim.