Avraham Chaim (Avi) was born in Jerusalem, on May 9, 1957 to Leah Yente and Eliezer - a Holocaust survivor who made aliya from Czechoslovakia. When Avi was five years old the family went to America where the father was the head of the Aliya Department of the Jewish Agency. They stayed for four years and Avi began his education at the 'Etz Chaim' school. He was 13 when his mother died.
A graduate of the Netiv Meir Yeshiva, Avi joined the Hesder program, combining his Army service in the Tank Corps with study at the Kiryat Arba Yeshiva. When the War for Shalom Hagalil began on June 6, 1982, Avi joined as a reservist and he and his unit entered Lebanon. On June 10th one of the unit's tanks was hit and when he went to assist the wounded, Avi was hit himself and killed. He was 25 when he fell in the battle near Lake Karoun. His body was only found some days later and on June 21st he was buried in the Givat Shaul Cemetery in Jerusalem.
In his memory, a revolving fund KEREN AVI CHAI has been established to help both needy families and young couples at his yeshiva, striving to acquire, as he was, both a yeshiva education and the tools for teaching and educating others.
