{"id":180395,"date":"2026-03-31T01:50:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T01:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180395\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:50:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T01:50:41","slug":"news-12-brooklyn-had-his-whole-life-ahead-of-him-local-rabbi-remembers-new-haven-born-idf-soldier-killed-in-combat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180395\/","title":{"rendered":"News 12 | Brooklyn | ‘Had his whole life ahead of him.’ Local rabbi remembers New Haven-born IDF soldier killed in combat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht of Beth Israel Chabad of Westport\/Norwalk is remembering his cousin’s grandson, 22-year-old Moshe Yitzchak Hacohen Katz, who IDF officials say was killed Friday night by Hezbollah rocket fire in Lebanon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“He was very, a very popular and giving individual who always had a smile on his face,” Rabbi Hecht says. “He had that kind of — what you call finesse, charisma… the charisma of life.”<\/p>\n

Katz, a New Haven native, was a soldier of the 890th battalion, paratroopers brigade.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Hecht says Katz joined the IDF following the deadly Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

“Just like my uncle was full of life,” Rabbi Hecht says, “This little boy — who was not a little boy, he was a young man at 22 — had his whole life ahead of him.”<\/p>\n

In an emotional Facebook<\/a> post, Katz’s father called it an unspeakable tragedy, saying in part, “…my heart is shattered and the wound is real.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences, saying in part, “We embrace Moshe’s family in their difficult hour and wish a swift and full recovery to our fighters who were wounded in the same incident. May his memory be a blessing.”<\/p>\n

Rabbi Hecht is hopeful there can one day be peace in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

“What’s going on in Israel right now hits home because it’s a relative of mine, but in a sense, every human being is related,” Rabbi Hecht says. “Everyone needs to feel a sense of loss when anyone is hurt in warfare or in combat.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht of Beth Israel Chabad of Westport\/Norwalk is remembering his cousin’s grandson, 22-year-old Moshe Yitzchak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,8538,60,13910,61,33408,17273,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-180395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-idf","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-israel-defense-forces","14":"tag-israel-hamas-war","15":"tag-lebanon","16":"tag-new-haven","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}