Daniel Eliezer Brenne was born in Chicago on November 9, 1951, son of Shoshana and Shlomo. He attended the Akiva Elementary School in Chicago where he excelled in all his studies. He then studied at a high school yeshiva of the “Beit Midrash for Torah”, where he also excelled in both religious and secular studies, and he served as a counselor at thelocal branch of Bnei Akiva. In the summer iof 1969, after graduating from high school, Danny immigrated to Israel with his family. He was a member of a training program at Kibbutz Sa’ad and joined a Nahal group that was annexed to Chai Castle. He served as squad commander of the Infantry Battalion-PIR. When the Yom Kippur War broke out, Danny fought in a combat unit of a parachute infantry unit in the Golan . After the war Danny began his academic studies, completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and chemistry at the Hebrew University. He then spent another year studying at the Feinberg Graduate School of the Weizmann Institute of Science. His instructors and colleagues considered him as a rising star in the skies of science.
He volunteered for the Perach program, a mentoring project. When one student’s mother pleaded with him to receive payment, he refused firmly and offered her a “compromise” to donate the money to charity. During the summer he tutored students in physics and chemistry, and spent every day on a page of Gemara with Rabbi Hacohen-Kook. Danny fell in battle in Lebanon on June 8, 1982, in the central square in Sidon, while his group tried to clear the main intersection of terrorist activity. Danny was laid to rest in a cemetery in Pardes Hannah. He left behind a wife Varda, from the family of Gerfredt, parents, brother-in-law and sister Esti. His commander said that during many years of service in the unit, Danny stood out as a soldier who performed his role with courage, with extraordinary self-control and with complete faith in his way and deeds. The Feinberg Graduate School has decided unanimously to name one of the prizes that it awards each year to its outstanding students in his name. Thus Danny will be associated with the names of the best students; his place was undoubtedly among them.
