Cpt. Shilo Rauchberger, 23, a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade, from Eli, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of southern Israel.
Shilo was stationed with his soldiers that morning at an IDF outpost close to the Gaza border, not far from Kibbutz Magen. When the rocket fire began, they ran for the on-base shelter, which was also the cafeteria, assuming that it was like any other rocket or mortar attack.
Soon they heard gunfire and Arabic nearby and understood that Hamas gunmen had invaded. The gunmen began to throw explosives and grenades at the door of the shelter, where Shilo had taken up position. He was wounded in his arm but kept fighting, continuing to fire for hours despite bleeding extensively, until he succumbed to his wounds.
He was killed alongside his friend and subordinate Sgt. Amichay Rubin as well as Staff Sgt. Shlomo Reshetnikov.
He was buried on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl on October 12. He is survived by his parents, Nirit and David, and his siblings Dvir, Hillel, Eliya, Hadar, Halleli and Talia.
Born and raised in the West Bank settlement of Eli, Shilo was always surrounded by his friends, according to an online eulogy.
He volunteered with a number of organizations, including the Bnei Akiva youth group, the Lev Binyamin organization for children with special needs and the One Family Fund for bereaved relatives of victims of terror.
Shilo attended high school in the settlement of Susya and then yeshiva in Eilat before enlisting in the IDF in August 2020, where he initially joined the Egoz Unit’s reconnaissance team. After completing an officer’s course, he was posted as a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion.
His brother, Eliya, told the Kan public broadcaster that the pair — separated in age by just 20 months — were very close.
“I had so many deep conversations with him, for me he was like my partner,” said Eliya. “We shared a room, we went through the same stages in life, always seeking advice from each other.”
His loss is felt most strongly, he said, when he is seeking direction, “because now I have nobody to ask for advice. He was the connecting link in the family.”
Shilo’s mother, Nirit, told the Arutz Sheva news site that her son was “born on [the fast day] of Tisha B’av, and already when he was a kid I said he was a child of redemption, full of life.”
“Shilo volunteered for years for Lev Binyamin and One Family. He lived a full life including in his depth of interactions with people, his desire to connect people, to open his heart, to give and only add goodness,” she continued.
She said that Shilo was home on the first day of Sukkot, a week before he was killed, and despite hosting 50 people for the holiday, “I looked for opportunities to speak with Shilo, even though he came home from the army so tired — and we sat and talked until 3 a.m., a mother-son conversation about everything.”
They spoke “about life, about what he wanted, about how he saw himself as a civilian — they offered him a role in the army and he was debating if to continue — about dating. It was such a meaningful conversation that tied up a lot of loose ends for me, that gave me a lot of strength. I remember every word. I thank God that we didn’t miss out on that.”
Nirit said she feels “Shilo with me every moment. His spirit is in the home, his joy, but it’s hard.”
Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.
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