from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Pa. native dies in Israeli army

Bucks County's Michael Levin fulfilled a dream by moving to Israel. A paratrooper, he died in Israel at age 22.

By Larry King and Christine Schiavo, Inquirer Staff Writers

At age 16, Michael Levin stunned his Bucks County family by announcing that he would settle in Israel after high school and join the military there.

His parents didn't worry at the time. First he'd go to college, they figured, then they'd see.

Two years later, Rabbi Jeffrey Schnitzer recalled, Levin's father, Mark, pulled him aside and said: "I've got a problem."

The son, by then 18 and graduating from Council Rock High School, remained determined. The father toyed with hiding his passport.

"Mark, you know him as well as I do," the rabbi recalled saying. "You could cut his legs off and he'd still go.

"And he said, 'You're right.' "

First Sgt. Michael Levin, 22, who fulfilled his dream of becoming an Israeli soldier, was killed in action Tuesday in southern Lebanon. He was one of three Israeli soldiers killed that day.

As his parents and two sisters - his twin, Dara, and his older sister, Elisa - flew yesterday to Jerusalem for a hero's burial today, others recalled a self-confident yet humble young man whose passion for Judaism and Israel delivered him willingly into harm's way.

"Michael was always a bright, inquisitive and stubborn young man, and it was this tenacity that let him do whatever he wanted to do in this life," Schnitzer said. "This was not about becoming a hero; he had no visions of glory. He did this because he couldn't think of a better way for him to serve the cause of Israel."

Levin died instantly when an antitank shell struck a building he was searching, Schnitzer said. His death came two weeks after he prematurely ended a three-week visit with his family in Holland, Bucks County, eager to rejoin his comrades in battle.

"He said, 'This is important; I need to go there now,' " the rabbi said.

His death also came one day after his parents and two sisters were cheered by an overflow crowd at a pro-Israel rally Monday night at Shir Ami congregation in Newtown. The ovation came after a speaker recognized their son's service, reducing his mother, Harriet, to tears.

"As one, 1,200 people stood up and gave the loudest and longest salute to this family," said Schnitzer, of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Bensalem, where the family worshipped.

"A day later, I have to tell the family that their son and brother had been killed in action."

Levin will be buried this afternoon in Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem - Israel's equivalent of Arlington National - amid soldiers, prime ministers and presidents, said Jay Podolsky, director of the Bucks County chapter of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. A local memorial service will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Shir Ami, Bucks County's largest synagogue, to accommodate the crowd that is expected.

Rabbi Todd Zeff plans to attend with a busload of Levin's friends from Camp Ramah in the Poconos, where Levin spent nine summers and returned for a visit July 16.

That day, Levin told friends he did not fear dying so much as its impact on his family, Zeff said. He told fellow former camper Michal Wachs, 20, of Bala Cynwyd, that living in Israel was "awesome."

"He thought of Israel as his country," she said. "He died for his country."

At Ramah, which is the camping arm of Conservative Judaism, Levin was among young people who shared his Zionistic zeal, Zeff said.

"We're all very passionate about Israel and very pro-Israel," said Ramah alumna Jessica Remstein, 20, of Richboro. "We were all behind his decision to join the army."

In Israel, Levin lived with two roommates in a small apartment in Jerusalem.

"Even though his room was no bigger than a walk-in closet, he was happy because he was in Israel," said roommate Davida Cutscher, who met Levin when she was a counselor and he a camper at Ramah.

"He had always told me that he was coming to Israel after high school," Cutscher said. "Many campers say that and do not follow through. But Mike did."

Eytan Peer, a Jewish Agency emissary who helps Jews moving to Israel, recalled Levin's will.

"He would just show up at my office in New York unannounced, having charmed his way in," Peer said. "In my entire career, I had only seen one other person so determined."

After high school, Levin entered the Nativ College Leadership Program in Israel. He then went to Kibbutz Yavne Ulpan to become more conversant in Hebrew, friends in Israel said.

Levin had to get special permission to enter the army so soon, said Tzika Aud, head of the Jewish Agency information center for new immigrants. Typically, immigrants are given an extended period to get acclimated.

Even though Levin was of slight build, he became a paratrooper and was one of the few Americans to ever serve in such an elite unit.

"The first time he parachuted, he strayed off course because he was not heavy enough," Aud told the Jerusalem Post. "The next time he jumped off a plane, they attached weights to his parachute."

Zeff said that Levin articulated his passion in a Nativ yearbook. Beneath a photo of him draped in an Israeli flag, his quote read: "You can't fulfill your dream unless you dare to risk it all."

www.philly.com

from JTA:

Pennsylvania-born IDF soldier remembered as friend and Zionist

By Rachel Silverman

NEW YORK, Aug. 2 (JTA) — On Monday evening, thousands of pro-Israel demonstrators in Bucks County, Pa., cheered for Michael Levin, 22, a local boy serving in the Israeli army.

By the next day, they were mourning his loss.

Levin was killed in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, along with two other Israeli soldiers. He is believed to be first American casualty of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. He is the 36th Israeli soldier to lose his life since fighting began July 12.

Levin was remembered by family and friends as a “Zionist through and through.”

A long-time camper at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, Levin was active in the Hagesher Region USY and in his Conservative temple, Congregation Tifereth Israel.

Rabbi Jeffery Schnitzer remembered Levin as “a prize student” who would “debate you to death.”

Levin loved speaking about halachah, Judaism and Zionism, Schnitzer said.

“When he wasn’t in Israel, Israel was inside him,” said Richard Waloff, a close friend of the family. “Ever since he was 15, he wanted to graduate high school and make aliyah.”

In part, friends and family say Levin was motivated by his grandfather, who fought in World War II. He also formed strong feelings about Israel on an eight-week Alexander Muss High School in Israel program.

At age 18, Levin acted on his dream of aliyah. He moved to Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi and studied Hebrew before enlisting in the army.

Baruch Ganz, 23, a close friend from both Israel and Bucks County, said Levin was a “thin, small guy,” but he quickly worked his way into an elite paratrooper division.

“The thing with Michael was that it was his energy, you know?” Ganz said. “A really passionate person — you can’t stop them for anything.”

Levin also was remembered as a congenial, popular young man.

“He was the kind of friend everyone’s looking for,” said Rabbi Todd Zeff, director of Camp Ramah in the Poconos. “He always had a smile on his face.”

Levin had been at camp just two weeks earlier while on a visit to the United States.

“He was in great shape and great spirits,” Zeff said. “He talked about the fact that for him it wasn’t having to go back, it was going back to do something that he believed in.”

“This was his choice, it was his dream, to serve and be in Eretz Israel,” Schnitzer added. “He said, ‘I’m going in with my eyes wide open.’ ”

Still, the shock for family and friends was almost too great to bear.

Schnitzer said that when news of Levin’s death spread through the synagogue, an executive committee meeting was ended on the spot.

“We’ve known this family for years,” Schnitzer said. “They were one of the early members of the congregation. People were in tears.

“I never really experienced my heart breaking before,” he continued. “Now I know what that feels like.”

At Camp Ramah in the Poconos, where Levin spent eight years as a camper and one as a counselor, about 100 staff members gathered to swap stories and memories.

“These guys all grew up together in camp for years and years and years,” Zeff said. “It’s a loss for the whole community.”

Levin will be buried Thursday at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

A memorial service will be held Aug. 7 at Shir Ami Synagogue in Newtown, Pa. Camp Ramah in the Poconos has rented a bus and plans to bring 50 counselors and staff members.

Levin is survived by two siblings: his twin sister Dara, a counselor at Ramah Day Camp; and Elisa, 26, an artist. Harriet, his mother, is an administrative assistant in the United Synagogue Mid-Atlantic Region; and his father, Mark, is a partner in a business that distributes motorcycle parts.

The family has asked that donations be made to American Friends of Magen David Adom and to the Israel Defense Forces.

www.jta.com

from YNetNews:

His dream was to serve in IDF

US-born Michael Levin shortened family trip in order to come back to Israel and fight. In Lebanon he made the ultimate sacrifice

Eli Senyor

Staff sergeant Michael Levin, 22, announced to his mother already at the age of 16 that he wanted to immigrate to Israel and enlist to a combat unit in the IDF. Four days ago, Michael shortened a trip to the States to visit his family in order to return to Israel and to fight in the north. Tuesday, Michael's mother received the bitter news in Philadelphia: Michael, who followed his dream and enlisted to the paratroopers, was killed in the difficult battle near Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.

Michael immigrated from Mangold, Pennsylvania three years ago, leaving behind his parents and two sisters. He lived in the religious Kibbutz Yavneh, and later, moved to an apartment in Jerusalem with two other soldiers.

Reut, Michael's friend from the kibbutz, said that he was always funny and friendly: "I met Michael when he immigrated from the US three years ago. When he first arrived, he studied in the ulpan (special class for learning Hebrew) on Kibbutz Yavneh, and that's where I met him. It was very important for him to go to a combat unit in the army, even though he didn't have to enlist. He simply wasn't ready to give up. I remember him as a funny guy, friendly and sweet. He had a lot of friends on the kibbutz, and some that he met in Jerusalem."

A short while ago, Michael received a special discharge from the army in order to visit his family in the United States. Upon hearing news about the outbreak of war in the north, he decided to shorten his vacation, and returned to Israel four days ago. His friends say that he went to his commanders and asked to be sent immediately to the northern border.

The consulate representatives that arrived at Michael's family's house to inform his parents of the devastating news, found his mother talking on the phone with her friends. His mother, who sensed something terrible had happened to her son, had started calling friends to try and find out how he was doing. They didn't know how to tell her that he had been killed in battle.

'Just a fantastic kid'

Tziki Oud, who serves as a kind of adoptive father for lone soldiers from the US and is the manager of the Immigrant Information Center in the Jewish Agency, said Tuesday that he couldn't believe that Michael was no longer around. "I still don't know how to eulogize him. Only two weeks ago we sat and ate together in Jerusalem. He told me that he really wanted to be an officer and to go to commanders' course. He asked if I could help him. He was part of a band of lone soldiers from the States who were very close. Everyone is very sad today. One of his friends called me and said that because of Michael's comic personality, he is positive Michael is going to call any minute and say 'Gotcha!' "

"Michael was just a fantastic kid who gave his all to the army. He really wanted to be accepted into the commandos. In one of our last conversations he told that he has no problem going through the entire paratroopers track all over again if they would ultimately let him join the commandos. I met his mother in one of his ceremonies. She was worried, but accommodated herself to her son's desire to enlist in the IDF. It was a strong desire that he had from a young age."

Oud goes on to say that the soldier that he himself adopted, Yonatan Marcus, was one of Michael's good friends, and was lightly injured in battle: "Last Saturday Yonatan came to me after returning from battle in Bint Jbeil. He had a very difficult experience there and said that he didn't want to go back until he said goodbye to all his friends. He was traumatized by what he experienced there.

"He, like all the other lone soldiers, cannot comprehend that Michael is no more. They call me and say that they still expect him to just show up. He had a good heart and there isn't one American in Jerusalem that doesn't know him. We lost one of our most optimistic kids. He had his feet on the ground and never hurt anyone."

www.ynetnews.com