Norbert (Nahum) Serota was born on March 14, 1951 in the USA to Morton and Rose. He grew up in Oceanside, NY where he went to elementary school and high school. In the high school orchestra he served as first violinist and was an avid reader. He made aliya in 1971.
In November 1971 he volunteered for the IDF and following his successful completion of a medics' course he was sent to a mobile artillery unit. He ended his term of service two days before the Yom Kippur War broke out. Although he had planned to visit his family in the US upon his release, he immediately rejoined his unit in the Golan Heights instead, where he was killed by a mortar explosion on October 8, 1973. He was buried in the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery.
When his parents came for the burial and shivah, veteran AACI members Mike and Hanna Bargteil opened their home to the Serotas. In gratitude, the family left a $500 check with the Bargteils. This became the basis of the Jerusalem Region Scholarship Fund. To date over a million dollars has been distributed to the needy children and siblings of fallen soldiers in the capital's school system from this fund, which today is worth $500,000.
