Yesterday, May 11th would have been Eli’s 77th Birthday. In the 50 years since he died, his two daughters have become impressive women and mothers to six grandchildren. Two have served in the IDF and two are currently serving including a Paratrooper in Gaza and a granddaughter currently training to be a demolition instructor, serving in the Combat Engineers as he did.
Eli Michael Solomon was born on May 11, 1947 in New York to Avraham and Evelyn. He studied in elementary school in New York and then at a municipal high school. He completed his BA in Economics at Long Island University. He was an active member of Betar from high school, becoming a counselor and then a member of the national American Board of Betar.
Eli was a proud Jew who was nearly trampled by mounted police during an anti-American Nazi demonstration in 1966 at Columbia University.
About a week before the Six Day War he made aliya to Moshav Amatzia. In 1968 he returned to the U.S. to marry Rina and complete his studies, finally coming back to Jerusalem with his wife in 1969. He was drafted into the IDF in January 1972 and assigned to the Engineers Corps. As an older immigrant and a father, he did only 3 months of compulsory service before his transfer to the reserve status.
When the Yom Kippur war broke out, Eli was sent to Sinai, where on November 26, 1973 he was killed by enemy fire when he tried to help a comrade-in-arms who had just been hit. He was buried on Mt Herzl in Jerusalem and left a wife and two daughters.
Yesterday, May 11th would have been Eli’s 77th Birthday. In the 50 years since he died, his two daughters have become impressive women and mothers to six grandchildren. Two have served in the IDF and two are currently serving including a Paratrooper in Gaza and a granddaughter currently training to be a demolition instructor, serving in the Combat Engineers as he did.