Remembering the Yom Kippur War

For many, the Yom Kippur War is a piece of history taught in school but for others, including many Israelis, it is a personal memory.

This year Eretz Yisrael marks 40 years since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a war that caught a nation on its holiest day. One must remember at that time there were no cellular telephones, no internet and no instant forms of communication. It took considerable time to alert the nation and pull the thousands and thousands of reservists out of shul as the country was rocked to the core with the news of an Egyptian assault on Yom Kippur.

Some figures on that conflict:

· 2,656 soldiers HY”D fell in the war

· 1,630 of the dead fell in combat on the southern front

· 872 soldiers fell in combat on the northern front

· 154 soldiers died on other fronts, including vehicular accident and training

· 16 soldiers are still officially listed as MIA (Missing in Action)

· 9 sets of brothers fell in the war

· 144 sets of bereaved parents from that war are still alive

· 740 bereaved parents of the war are still alive