ABOUT ROEE NEGRI
Roee was an outstanding soldier from the start of his army service. Once he joined the IDF's LOTAR anti-terrorist training unit as an officer - and due to the kind of leadership by example that inspires others to give of their best and his unit - it soon became the aspiration of so many of the soldiers who joined LOTAR to serve under Roee and become members of the famed "Team Negri ".
In 2022, at the age of 26, Roee became the volunteer Director General of the LOTAR Association, a non-profit organization formed to help graduates and families of graduates of LOTAR on numerous levels. Roee expanded many of the activities of LOTAR. For example, he created a program to which he gave the title "From Instructors of War to Instructors of Life". The Association gives grants to graduates of LOTAR for their academic studies in return for community service.
On that fateful Shabbat morning of October 7th, under the command Rav Seren (Major) Roee Negri, "Team Negri" was among the first combat soldiers to reach Kibbutz Beeri and go into action to free families being held hostages by the terrorists. The fighting was fierce, but Roee led his soldiers - as the truly courageous and inspiring leader that he was - from house to house, room to room, freeing family after family held hostage until they reached the last in a row of houses. In line with who Roee was, he was always, fearlessly the first to enter each house. When a terrorist surprised the unit in a corner of a room and threw a grenade, Roee pushed his team back out of its range and shot and killed the terrorist - but he sustained a bullet to his neck, a fatal injury.
At his funeral, Roee's father ended his eulogy with this question: "If God had told Roee that if he enters that last house he will be killed [but rescue the hostages and protect his team], would he or would he not have entered it?" And with one resounding voice, all the soldiers attending the funeral responded in one voice "הוא היה ניכנס" "HE WOULD HAVE GONE IN"......... And his father repeated the response ending with words, "Yes, he would have....because that was our Roee."
Roee and his team saved dozens of Israelis from being killed or kidnapped by Hamas, and all of his 17 soldiers are still in the front lines in Gaza fighting for Israel in the spirit of their beloved commander Roee Negri z"l.*
*Roee was the beloved grandson of Brenda Hirsch, Director of Resource Development for ALYN Hospital.