You Too, If You Die For Israel, Could Be Promoted To The Rank of Jew

Soldier killed in Lebanon War 'finally promoted to rank of Jew'

".....Yesmao was accepted to an intensive Jewish Agency program for Ethiopian immigrants in their teens and early 20s.

"He had lived as a Jew in Ethiopia, immigrated to Israel as a Jew, and completed the conversion process successfully," says Rabbi Menachem Waldman, director of the Shvut Am organization, which has accompanied the process for 17 years on the Chief Rabbinate's behalf. "When he arrived at the rabbinic court for the final stage, they pulled the same trick on him as on other youngsters. The rabbinic judges demanded he furnish confirmation from the synagogue he prays at, but from what synagogue is a young guy like him, without a family, going to get confirmation?"

Yesmao enlisted in the IDF at 23 and served as a sniper with Battalion 12 of the Golani Brigade.....Yesmao was killed by a direct hit to the head in a battle with Hezbollah.

Then the issue of his burial place arose. IDF records listed him as non-Jewish, but after special application to Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Yesmao was ruled to have completed the conversion process, and was buried in a regular plot.

"After his death he was promoted to the rank of Jew," a buddy from his platoon said with bitterness........"