Zeev Erlich

Zeev Erlich was born in 1953

Zeev Hanoch Erlich was born in 1953 to Hadassah and Yisrael Erlich. His father was a Sochatchov Hasid who edited books on the history of Jewish figures from Poland. He grew up in Religious Zionist schools and studied at Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem.

He earned a bachelor's degree in Talmud and Jewish history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Touro College. In the IDF he was an infantry officer and was wounded in the Yom Kippur War. From 1988 to 1991 he served as an intelligence officer in the Judea sector.

He lived in Ofra and helped found the Ofra Field School. He worked as a guide and researcher, published dozens of studies and wrote a regular column in Makor Rishon. He studied the Old City of Nablus and its underground water systems, and lectured at the Lander Institute and Orot Israel College.

He guided soldiers and officers and documented archaeological sites in the West Bank with IDF approval. After Operation Brother's Keeper in 2014 he helped set up the Har Tzion unit, and later he was among the founders of the Mar'ol unit. He was married to Tamar and had 3 sons and 3 daughters.

On November 20, 2024, he joined a Golani Brigade force near the village of Shamaa in Lebanon and was killed in an ambush at a Crusader fortress. He was recognized after his death as a fallen IDF soldier and buried in Ofra. A Military Police investigation examined how he entered Lebanon as a civilian.