Israelis love and cherish life! It seems impossible to keep them down once they have been knocked off their feet. This season of the year illustrates that. A week ago they commemorated Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), honoring the 6 million+ Jews murdered in the Holocaust. It was Hitler’s attempt to eradicate the world’s Jews. He failed, and today Israel thrives despite his hatred. Yet, every Jewish family was impacted by losses during the Holocaust, and they honor them during Yom HaShoah.

April 21, 2026 marks Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) where those fallen in war or by the brutality of terrorist attacks are lifted up in honor. Israelis care deeply for their soldiers, primarily because they have all been there. Israeli men serve for about 3 years and women for about 2 years. Every parent has served, and every parent’s kids serve as well. Losing one is very painful. Read Keren’s story…

Rivana Tendler wrote:

On this upcoming Memorial Day, I wish to share the story of my daughter, Keren, who was killed in Lebanon.

Master Sergeant (Res.) Keren Tendler, of blessed memory—my daughter—was the first female aerial mechanic on IDF Yasur helicopters. She was killed in Lebanon when a missile fired by Hezbollah terrorists struck her helicopter and that of her comrades, after they had deployed paratroopers and medical corps forces inside enemy territory in Lebanon.

Before departing on her final flight into Lebanon, Keren asked her younger brother to bring her a knife, so that she could cut her veins if she were taken captive. This was two days before the end of the Second Lebanon War.

The missile hit the helicopter seconds after the forces had been deployed and just seconds after it had lifted off the ground. Following the impact, the helicopter burst into flames and crashed completely into a wadi in Hezbollah-controlled territory. A massive fire lit up southern Lebanon that night as a result of the explosion. The paratroopers—some of whom had been on the helicopter just minutes earlier—were forced to witness the horrific scene, and through their resourcefulness, the abduction of the crew’s bodies was prevented. Keren’s body could not be found.

We received the notification that Keren had been killed in Lebanon, and that her body was missing, on the night following August 12, 2006. Not only had we lost our Keren in such a tragic and sudden way—we feared that there would be no body to bury in Israel.

In order to locate Keren’s remains in Lebanon, soldiers from Unit 669 and the Shaldag unit were sent into Lebanon. Assisting them in the search was the deputy commander of the paratrooper battalion that had been deployed in the area; after the war, he was awarded a brigade commendation for his bravery.

Three days after the helicopter was brought down by a Hezbollah missile, Keren’s charred remains were found beneath part of the wreckage.

The soldiers of Unit 669 and Shaldag were forced to hide with parts of Keren’s body for an entire day in a concealed location in Lebanon, out of fear that Hezbollah terrorists were observing them. Under cover of darkness, on the night of August 16, 2006, Keren was brought from enemy territory in Lebanon on a long foot journey to the Israeli border and to burial in Israel, carried by soldiers of Unit 669 and Shaldag, accompanied by paratroopers.

Twenty years have passed since Keren was killed. To this day, she remains the only female IDF soldier to have fallen in combat in Lebanon, across all of Israel’s wars in the region.

Over the past months, I have tried to reach out to anyone I could—pages with large followings, celebrities, and social media influencers—in the hope that they would write something about Keren. Sadly, without success.

I ask you—please do not let Keren and her memory be cast into the trash heap of history.

Two weeks before she was killed in Lebanon, Keren wrote in her diary a letter filled with pain and sorrow over soldiers who were being killed, turning to God with a plea to protect the soldiers of the IDF.

It breaks my heart to think that my Keren might be forgotten as if she had never existed—even after 20 years.

Keren was my only daughter. After her, my son—her only brother—was born. Keren’s father and I are already quite elderly, and her father is currently coping with Parkinson’s disease.

The thought that there may be no one left to tell and carry on the story of my Keren—who gave her life for the State of Israel at the age of 26, before she had the chance to marry and have children of her own—tears my soul and my heart apart.

I ask you—do not let this happen.

On this upcoming Memorial Day, marking 20 years since Keren fell in Lebanon, please tell the story of my daughter—Master Sergeant (Res.) Keren Tendler, of blessed memory—the first (and only) female soldier to fall in Lebanon.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Rivana, Keren’s mother.

Will you share this post on your social media platforms? Let’s bless Rivana by sharing Keren’s story.

The third of Israel’s current celebrations happens the day following the somber Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day). That is Yom Ha’Atzmaut…a grand day of celebrating Israel’s rebirth! Similar to Fourth of July in America, they rejoice over their independence won in 1948. (If you are thinking that Israel’s Independence Day is May 14, 1948, remember that Israel uses a lunar calendar, not a solar calendar as we do in America.)

Indeed, Israelis love life! They know how to honor those lost in the Holocaust and in battle and terrorism, and they know how to celebrate God’s great grace toward them in bringing them back to their own land! (Just as the Bible promised! Ezekiel 36-37, among other passages.)