St.-Sgt. Ari Yehoshua Weiss

Sept 30, 2002 - St.-Sgt. Ari Yehoshua Weiss, 21, of Ra'anana, was killed when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an army position in the Nablus casbah.

At around 6 PM, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an army position in a house in the Nablus casbah. Two soldiers from the engineering battalion of the Nahal Brigade were hit. Sergeant Ari Weiss was hit in the head and died shortly thereafter. The other soldier was wounded in the chest.

Ari Weiss immigrated with his family to Israel from Dallas, Texas in 1992. He attended the Noam Yeshiva High School in Pardes Hanna. The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Avihai Katzin, described him as a quiet boy who enjoyed studying. He enlisted in the Nahal Brigade just over two years ago. Ari's father, Stewart, served as rabbi of the English-speaking congregation in Ra'anana, and as director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana and columnist for the Jerusalem Post. He said, "Ari believed that serving in the army in a combat unit was not a burden or a punishment, but a privilege. You were a shy boy, unsure of yourself, but in the end you were everything that your name was meant to be, brave and courageous as the lion, and a leader like Yehoshua."

Ari's brother Eli, 20, a paratrooper, spoke of how much it meant for the family to spend Succot together last week, after having been apart for a long time; even the grandparents came from the US. His older sister Pnina spoke of his relationship with his five siblings, especially, his younger brother, Yedidya. "He looks like you, he talks like you, he acts like you. Yedidya always wanted to be like you in every way."

St.-Sgt. Ari Weiss was buried in the military cemetery in Ra'anana. He is survived by his parents, two brothers and three sisters, and his maternal grandparents, both of them Holocaust survivors.