Border Police soldier Noa Mizrahi was moved to tears when her mother, Nirit, placed on her head the green beret that had belonged to her sister, the late Sub-Inspector Raz Mizrahi. “She must be looking down from above and bursting with pride,” Noa said.
Raz was wounded in a terror attack during operational activity in Jerusalem, underwent rehabilitation, and against all odds returned to service and completed the Border Police officers’ course. Eight months after her discharge, she was murdered by terrorists while attending the Nova music festival with friends during the October 7 attacks.
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Noa Mizrahi is sworn in as a Border Police soldier with the beret of her sister, Raz Mizrahi, who was murdered in Nova
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
“Raz, I did it,” Noa whispered quietly. Noa was 13 when her sister stood at her swearing-in ceremony and received her beret. “In the hard moments, when I feel like breaking and going home, I tell myself: ‘If Raz overcame her injury in the Jerusalem attack, completed the officers’ course with distinction and served as a commander, then who am I to break when things get a little hard?’”
'It was hard for me to sign for Noa to enlist'
“I remember that even as a child I said that one day I would also wear a green beret,” Noa recalls. “But I never imagined that at my swearing-in ceremony I would wear my sister Raz’s beret, after she was murdered at Nova. She used to come home on Fridays with the beret on her head, so proud, and I would try it on too. Her saying was, ‘The terrorist injured my body, but not my motivation.’”
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The late Raz Mizrahi with the green beret at the field officer course
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
In the audience sat their mother Nirit, brother Tom and other family members, who unfurled an Israeli flag bearing a photo of “our beloved Raz.”
“Already during the shiva I understood who would wear Raz’s green beret that I had saved for this moment. I was deeply moved to place it on Noa at the ceremony, so she can be an outstanding soldier in her own right,” Nirit says. “It was hard for me to sign for Noa to enlist in the Border Police, a corps where her life could be in danger. But she didn’t give up, and I knew I couldn’t stop her because of my fears.”
At the ceremony, Nirit placed the beret on Noa’s head and saluted her. “It’s a difficult and emotional moment — between the pain and memory of Raz, and Noa beginning her own personal journey in the Border Police,” she said.
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Nirit Mizrahi placed the beret on her daughter Noa’s head and saluted her
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
Nirit says that “Raz had big dreams. The moment she completed the officers’ course after months of rehabilitation from the car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in eastern Jerusalem was a moment of pure pride and joy. For her, it was a triumph of spirit. As an officer, she instilled in her soldiers a love of the country.
“Raz enlisted in 2020 in the Hadar company, named after Border Police fighter Hadar Cohen, of blessed memory, who was killed in a terror attack at Damascus Gate a decade ago — and Noa also insisted on joining the same company,” she said.
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The late Raz Mizrahi with the green beret at the field officer course
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
On October 7, “Raz went with friends from the Border Police to the party. At 6:29 a.m. we received the first call from her, telling us they were in a shelter. She made calls to friends from the Border Police and the special patrol unit to come rescue them. At 8:00 a.m. she called the police emergency line, trying to get them to send officers, and at 8:10 a.m. we lost contact with her. ‘Mom, I love you’ were the last words she said.”
“When I put on the beret, I feel that I am continuing Raz’s memory — the hero who excelled in everything,” Noa says.