Michael Levin is remembered by friends as a 'Zionist through and through.' He was a long-time camper at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, and was active in the Hagesher Region USY and in his Conservative temple, Congregation Tifereth Israel. He attended the February 2001 session of USY at the Alexander Muss High School, an Israeli program for American teenagers in Ramat Hasharon. Michael made Aliyah from Philadelphia in 2002 and joined the Paratroopers.
At the age of 18 he made aliya, studying Hebrew in the Ulpan on Kibbutz Yavneh, and then moving to Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi. In January 2005 he was drafted into the IDF and served - at his insistance - in the Paratroop Corps. Michael was visiting his parents in the US when the Second Lebanon War began and he decided to cut his vacation short and come back to join his platoon.
On August 1, 2006, two weeks after he returned to Israel, Michael was killed (together with two other Israeli soldiers) in fierce fighting against the Hezbollah in the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab. He was buried , at his request, on Mt Herzl.
