Tuvya Yanai Weisman, son of Orly and Avraham Weisman, was born in Safed in 1994. When Yanai was one year old his family moved to Ma’ale Michmash in the Binyamin region. After completing twelve years of study, he joined the Yedidya pre-military academy in Gush Etzion and spent a year and a half in the preparatory program, engaged in the search for truth without compromises. During his studies at the academy, Yanai and his girlfriend decided to marry. The wedding took place about two months before he was drafted into the IDF. In March 2014, Yanai enlisted in the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade.
St.-Sgt. Weisman was off-duty as a soldier on February 18, 2016, but the 21-year-old was on-duty for his family and country. While grocery shopping for Shabbat with his wife and infant daughter at a supermarket in the Sha’ar Binyamin industrial zone, he heard shouts from a terrorist attack elsewhere in the store and rushed to the scene. Unarmed, he tried to overcome the attackers, but was stabbed to death in the process. Two civilians quickly arrived and shot and wounded the two terrorists. Tuvia died a few hours later in the hospital. Six months after his death, the IDF awarded Tuvia a citation for bravery.
Weisman’s wife Yael requested of the IDF to recognize her husband as a soldier who died in action, and indeed won the right to engrave his headstone with the words “fell in battle.” In September she accepted a citation from the Central Army Command recognizing him for bravery. In addition to his wife, he is survived by baby daughter Neta, his parents, and three siblings.
