Yitzhak Yifat

I always had a slight crush on that good looking paratrooper (the one in the middle) since I saw his picture at the liberation of the Western Wall in 1967.  All of those young men were my heroes and no action was more thrilling to me than the return of the Kotel to Israeli hands.  He also reminded me of someone vaguely familiar, perhaps another young soldier or airman that I knew from school, hahaha? 

Today, thanks to a Facebook post by my Rabbi, I find out that the man in the picture is Dr. Yitzhak Yifat.  In an article about the recent death of Rabbi David Hartman and the arrest of two women who dared to wear tallit at the Western Wall, Dr. Yifat is quoted as saying:
 “It breaks my heart that the ultra-Orthodox have decided the Kotel belongs to them.  In honor of Rabbi Hartman-Dayeinu, enough! In the Rabbi’s words 'I don’t want religion to be the private property of certain people. I don’t want the length of the sidelocks to be the determining factor.'"

I liked that young airman then but I like him even more now! 

;-)