Yehuda Katz

Yehuda Katz was born in 1959 in Ramat Gan

Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman Katz was born on July 18, 1959, in Ramat Gan to Yosef and Sarah Katz, Holocaust survivors. He was their youngest child, after his brother Avi and sister Sarah. He was named after his grandfather, who was murdered in the Holocaust.

He studied at the Nehalim yeshiva and later at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh, headed by Rabbi Haim Yaakov Goldvicht. As a student in the Hesder track, he enlisted for combat service in the Armored Corps.

In the First Lebanon War he fought in a tank commanded by Lieutenant Zohar Lifshitz. On June 11, 1982, about 10 days before his planned discharge, he took part in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, where 20 Israeli soldiers were killed. Katz, Zachary Baumel and Zvi Feldman were listed as missing for many years.

The IDF and his family searched for information on his fate. In 2004 the Chief Military Rabbi planned to declare the three missing as fallen with unknown burial place, but the families' struggle prevented it. His family later grew close to Breslov Hasidism and added the name Nachman to his name.

His mother died in 2011 and his father in 2014. In August 2026 his remains were found in Lebanon and identified, and he was buried on August 21, 2026, in the military cemetery on the Mount of Olives.