Bereaved Mother Dedicates Bar-Ilan Degree to Fallen Son, Finds Diploma Dated on His Hebrew Death Anniversary

At a master’s graduation ceremony at Bar-Ilan University, Einat Avitan dedicated her degree to her son, Staff Sgt. Yair Avitan, who was killed in the war, and to wounded IDF soldiers. After opening her diploma at home, she discovered that the printed Hebrew date was 22 Sivan, the Hebrew anniversary of her son’s death.

Avitan, whose son served in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 890th Battalion, said in a personal post that she finished the degree in Jewish philosophy after being forced to choose whether to stop her life after her son was killed at the end of her second year of studies, or continue despite the bereavement. She described the studies as a “true anchor,” saying they gave her tools through Jewish thought and sources to understand life and death differently and to choose life through pain.

She wrote that during visits to the cemetery she promised her son that if she completed the degree, she would dedicate it to him, to fallen Israeli soldiers and to wounded IDF personnel. This week, at the graduation ceremony, she fulfilled that promise and said she was grateful for the strength to stand on stage and speak before the audience.

Avitan said the date on the diploma created what she called “the most chilling and precise closing of a circle.” She added that she felt her son was with her throughout the evening, “he heard me speaking to him at the cemetery, he was with me there on the stage, and he confirmed for me in his special way that this journey, his and mine, was completed.” In her speech she thanked God for the strength to finish her studies and dedicated the degree to “all the fallen of the wars of Israel” and to IDF wounded soldiers undergoing rehabilitation and recovery.