Mentors and friends from Hadassah’s Meir Shfeyah Youth Aliyah Village are mourning the loss of a village graduate. A lone soldier from Kazakhstan, 20-year-old Staff Sgt. Simon Shlomov of the Paratrooper Brigade was killed on February 18 in southern Gaza.
Shlomov took part in the Naale Elite Academy at the village after making aliyah on his own at age 14. He worked in the dairy and was eager to serve in a combat unit. Upon graduation, he studied in an army preparation program, improved his Hebrew and fulfilled his dream of serving with the Paratrooper Brigade of the IDF.
The Hadassah and Meir Shfeyah flags were on display at his funeral, where around 1,000 Israelis came to pay their respects.
As a teen, Shlomov was interviewed for a 2019 episode of Hadassah’s The Branch podcast, which featured journalist Dina Kraft telling the stories of Israelis and Palestinians forging strong relationships under challenging circumstances, in an episode titled “It Takes a Village” focused on a young mentor who brought students together at Meir Shfeyah.