Slain ultra-Orthodox soldier had strong SA links

An ultra-Orthodox Israeli soldier with strong South African ties followed a path few in his world choose to walk by enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a decision that ultimately cost him his life.

Moshe Shmuel Noll, 21, was raised in a religious community choosing to enlist for national service, and this week fell in battle in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza together with four other soldiers.

Moshe’s father, Rabbi David Noll, 82, is a part of the Chabad community of Beit Shemesh. Originally from Cape Town, he grew up on Beach Road in Sea Point, and followed in his father’s footsteps becoming a pharmacist, later taking over the Mimosa Pharmacy from his dad. He was an integral part of Chabad Sea Point, and helped establish the first and only Cape Town mikveh, Mikveh Aharon, situated behind the Morasha Shul in Arthur’s Road, Sea Point.

Rabbi Mendel Popack of Chabad Centre Sea Point spoke this week of David being a cherished lifelong friend. Popack and his wife, Rosie, were going to visit him during his shiva week.

“This is a wound that really hurts the entire family and extended family and friends,” said Popack. “I have had many calls from people he went to school with and others he was friends with in Cape Town, all expressing their sorrow. David was a staunch supporter of the Cape Town Chabad community from day one in 1976, when we first came to Cape Town. He was instrumental in building the mikveh. He turned his life around, became observant, went to Israel, married Miriam, and remains a lifelong friend of ours. He married later and lived for his six children. He said his son, Moshe, was the glue who kept the family together.”

David’s first cousin who lives in Johannesburg, Cecily Melnick, 91, spoke to him this week. “David told me how blessed he was to have had such an exceptional son whom he described as an amazing human who was loved and adored by everybody.”

In a show of shared grief, South African olim and residents of Beit Shemesh lined the streets with Israeli flags, offering cold water in the sweltering heat and silent prayers as the Noll family made their way to bury their son and brother on Wednesday afternoon, 8 July, at the military cemetery on Har Herzl in Jerusalem.

“Moshe chose a less travelled path – bravely going against the flow,” said Dorron Kline, Telfed chief executive, who lives in Beit Shemesh. “He paid the supreme price for his courage, and will be sorely missed.”

Moshe served in the Netzach Yehuda Battalion, Kfir brigade. He was the 19th soldier from Beit Shemesh to fall since the start of Operation Iron Swords, but for many, especially among the city’s tight-knit South African olim community, his death has struck a particularly raw and painful chord.

There are more than 250 South African families living in Beit Shemesh, the majority religious, many of them based in Ramat Beit Shemesh, where Moshe was raised.

David and his wife, Miriam, who is from the United States, made aliya in the 1990s and settled in Beit Shemesh, where they raised six children.

Within much of the ultra-Orthodox world, military service remains controversial – rooted in decades of ideological, religious, and practical concerns. However, Netzah Yehuda is made up mostly of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, and was set up in 1999 to accommodate the religious lifestyle of haredim and other national-religious recruits in the army.

According to the IDF, Moshe was killed in a deadly ambush in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, just 1.5km from the Israeli border. Three explosive devices were remotely detonated in succession, with the first two striking soldiers directly, and the third going off as others rushed to help. Hamas gunmen then opened fire with light weapons, wounding many. The military believes the bombs were planted by the Hamas cell during the previous 24 hours.

Dozens of Hamas operatives are believed to still be hiding in Beit Hanoun’s underground tunnel networks, and the military’s operation there continues.

At Wednesday’s funeral, Moshe’s sister Esta described him as an “angel” having had “such a big personality but an even bigger heart”.

Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmulik Greenberg visited the Noll family, and described Moshe as “a model of dedication and heroism, a true fighter who fell with great self-sacrifice in his mission for am Yisrael”.

Friends described Moshe as kind, humble, and deeply committed to both his faith and his mission.

This tragedy comes in the shadow of a deep connection between Beit Shemesh and the South African Jewish community. Through the Partnership2Gether (P2G) initiative, Beit Shemesh and the Mateh Yehuda region have been twinning with South African Jewry for more than 30 years. Operated through the Jewish Agency for Israel, the programme fosters relationships between South Africans and Israelis.

The partnership has become a lifeline of mutual support between Beit Shemesh and South Africans, making this loss not just personal, but communal.

The rabbi of the central Chabad synagogue in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Rabbi Shraga Natan Dahan, who knew Moshe personally, told the Beit Shemesh news network that Moshe was a “smiling young man, full of joy and life”.

“In recent years, he rose spiritually, finding the strength to grow continuously. He was always helping his friends, a truly joyful soul who radiated light to those around him, and he possessed genuinely noble character traits,” it said.

“He was also a spiritual guide to his brothers and sisters, a role model whom they looked up to and saw as a truly special person,” the Beit Shemesh rabbi said. “The family was proud of his path, and he too was proud and joyful in the life he chose and the work he did,” he said.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Gaza Strip stands at 449.

The slain soldiers killed with Moshe on Monday include Staff Sergeant Meir Shimon Amar, 20; Sergeant Moshe Nissim Frech, 20; Staff Sergeant Noam Aharon Musgadian, 20; and Sergeant First Class (res) Benyamin Asulin, 28.