Neria-Moshe Cohen

Neria-Moshe Cohen was born in Givat Shmuel on 26 December 1997, during Hanukkah, to Sarit and Ezra. He grew up in the Avnei Hachoshen community and was a brother to Aviya, Eliya, and Moria. After studying at the Darchei Noam yeshiva in Petah Tikva, he continued to the hesder yeshiva in Kiryat Shmona. As a teenager, he was a member and a counselor in the Ezra youth movement in his hometown. Former members of the branch remembered him as someone sensitive to those around him, with action and volunteering at the heart of his life; to them, his choice to study medicine also seemed a natural continuation of that path.

Over the years, he volunteered with Magen David Adom and trained as a medic and ambulance driver. He donated blood many times and began volunteering with Magen David Adom while he was still a youth movement counselor. At the same time, he helped others through additional organizations. He supported a sick child and the child's family, maintaining contact with them over the years. Neria loved traveling in Israel and abroad, making friends, and cooking for them. In 2021, he began studying medicine at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and dreamed of becoming a pediatrician.

During his regular service, he was a combat soldier in Givati's Shaked Battalion. When the war broke out, he was in the United States with a university delegation and returned to Israel for reserve service. He served as a combat medic in the 17th Battalion of the Bislach Brigade; among his duties, he helped civilians in the humanitarian corridor in Gaza. After more than two hundred days of reserve service, on 4 June 2024, he was killed in a road accident on his way to continue his service. He was twenty-six and was buried in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl.

After his death, members and counselors of Ezra in Givat Shmuel chose to dedicate a blood drive at their branch to his memory. It was the third blood drive they had organized since the beginning of the war. In an article about the initiative, former members spoke of his volunteering and his wish to save lives, connecting the way he had lived with the activity they held to commemorate him. May his memory be a blessing.