Only a few thousand shekels are still needed to complete a new memorial project for Captain Neria Zisk, an armored corps officer killed in Gaza after cutting short a South America trip to join the war. This week, his family inaugurated a commemorative pergola at the Merkaz Shapira girls' seminary as part of a broader series of memorial initiatives they are leading, and they are now asking the public to help close the fundraising gap.
Speaking to ynet, Neria's father, Israel Zisk, said his son had been traveling in South America with friends when he heard on Simchat Torah, October 7, that war had broken out. He immediately decided to abandon the trip and return to Israel. According to his father, only soldiers with emergency call-up orders were initially being flown home, so Neria made up a story that his unit was waiting for him at the border. That was not true, Israel Zisk said, and when the plane was full, the pilot seated him in the cockpit. The family later learned this from the pilot himself, who came to their shiva and explained the shortage of space.
Zisk said his son tried twice to enlist for the fighting but was turned away because he did not have a call-up order. Eventually, persistence paid off and he joined his reservist friends in the armored corps, in the 401st Brigade's 52nd Battalion. He fought for about two and a half months.
On the Hebrew date of Tu B'Shvat, December 27, 2023, in Baghdad Town in Gaza City's Shajaiya neighborhood, a metal cable got tangled in the tank's track. Neria volunteered to get out and fix it, while the company commander covered him. A sniper shot and killed Zisk at the scene, and the commander was moderately wounded. Since then, the family has already created several memorial projects, including a seating area and a nature corner in Hurchat Tamar, a Torah scroll dedicated to Neria's soul at their synagogue in Mevo'ot Yitzhak, and plans for a future synagogue in Kiryat Malakhi. For the current project, they said they have raised about 17,000 shekels and still need only 3,000 more.
