Menachem Katz

Menachem Katz was born in 1938 in Tel Aviv

Menachem Katz was born in Tel Aviv in 1938. He studied at the Beit Hinuch Tzafon elementary school and at Shalva Gymnasium high school. He sailed with the Hapoel sailing team and twice won the national sailing championship, and he also painted, sculpted and carved.

Katz joined the IDF in 1956 and served in the Nahal. He took courses in topography instruction, parachuting and squad command. In the reserves he served as a scout in an armored unit and fought in the Six-Day War.

On 10 October 1973 he was at the Martef outpost in Sinai when he saw an IDF supply truck driving by mistake into Egyptian-held territory. He went after it in a jeep, kept going after an order to return, and was hit by Egyptian fire and killed on his way back.

He was buried at Kiryat Shaul military cemetery and left a wife, two sons, a daughter and his mother. In May 1975 he was awarded the Medal of Courage after his death. His friends founded a yearly sailing race in his memory, with a trophy designed by sculptor Yigal Tumarkin.