Ariel Menachem Shane was born on February 1, 1979 in Beersheba to Yisrael and Ruth who had made aliya in 1965 and settled in Beersheba. Ariel studied at the Ramban State-Religious Elementary School in his hometown and then moved to the Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School in Jerusalem.
After completing high school, Ariel went to visit his grandfather in Boston, MA and during the month he spent there he worked as a research assistant in the hospital attached to the Harvard University Medical School.
Upon his return to Israel he continued his religious studies at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem and was active as a counsellor in the Bnei Akiva movement. He was drafted into the IDF April 1997 and served in the Tank Corps.
On October 15, 1997, while on routine guard duty near a missile storage facility, Ariel Menahem Shane died in a bizarre accident with an unexploded LAW anti-tank missile. He was laid to rest at the Be'er Sheva Military Cemetery, leaving behind his parents and four brothers.
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