Sgt.Tomer Leibovitz OBM fell in battle: 'I go where I am needed most'
An armored corps soldier, 19, fell on Simchat Torah. His family describes a brilliant child, an outstanding athlete and a people person who chose to give up a secure path in order to serve where he felt he was truly needed. His saying; “Dream, smile, achieve”, remains the family’s motto, and they try to live by it, “something left to us as a command, to spread his light.”
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A child of logic and curiosity
From the moment he was born, it was clear that Tomer Leibovitz was an exceptional child. “Tomer was, first and foremost, a very, very smart child,” says his mother, Keren Arad Leibovitz. “From the moment he was born it was noticeable. He was like a sponge, everything related to intellect he absorbed: data, facts, people, names.”
More than anything, she says, he was a logical child. If they wanted Tomer to do something, it required an explanation that satisfied him. “Without that, it just wasn’t going to happen.” That trait did not always fit neatly into formal frameworks. In kindergarten and the early years of school, he struggled to understand why he was not allowed to correct teachers, or why there were rules that made no sense to him. But with the transition to middle school, and with decisions he made on his own about his life, a change took place. “It was like watching a miracle before our eyes,” his mother says.
Excelling at everything he touched
Tomer completed his studies with 13 certificates of excellence, including social excellence. At the same time, he pursued a professional volleyball career “and became the youngest player to join the adult premier league,” his father says. “It’s not a trivial combination,” says his sister Noam. “Studies, professional sports and a social life.”
His father says that friendships were a world unto themselves. Tomer was a “magnet for people.” His social circles ranged from age 14 to 75. “He knew how to speak to everyone at eye level. He always saw the person in front of him first. Everyone was someone to be respected.”
A big brother, a role model
The bond between Tomer and his sisters was especially close. “We grew up like twins,” Noam says. “He was my best friend and the first person I turned to about anything.”
When she was younger, all she wanted was to do what Tomer did. He taught her to play volleyball, helped her with schoolwork and served as a role model. For the younger sister, Lior, too, he was a devoted big brother, one who was truly present.
Choosing the armored corps
Tomer was supposed to enlist as an outstanding athlete. The track was already laid out. But three weeks before his enlistment, he gathered the family in the living room and announced that he was enlisting in a combat role. “We were shocked,” his mother says. In the end, he chose the armored corps. When he explained why, he said simply: “The special units have enough volunteers. I’m going where I’m needed most.” “I came away satisfied that he was happy,” his mother says.
He enlisted in the armored corps and served as a loader-operator on a tank crew in the 7th Brigade, Battalion 77. His role included responsibility for loading shells and communications. “And in his last year,” his father, Shai, says, “he was a happy kid. Truly happy.”
A spirit of excellence
Even on the course, Tomer did not settle for simply getting by. In one of the final tests, he was required to load 42 shells into the tank’s belly. But that was not enough for him. In record time, he loaded 77 shells, breaking the all-time record of the armored corps. That record, to this day, has not been broken. “That was Tomer, it really characterized him,” his sister says. “Anything he wanted, he achieved. His spirit and motivation were endless.”
The request that was not fulfilled
On the Sabbath before his death, Tomer made one unusual request: that the family not come to visit him. “It was the only time we didn’t come,” his mother says. He asked them to stay home with the puppies he had brought a week earlier from Nahal Oz. “Stay with them at home and take care of them, so they won’t be afraid. On Thursday we’ll already meet.” But on Thursday, they did not meet. The family received word of his death only six days later.
October 7
On Simchat Torah, October 7, 2023, Tomer fell in battle. He was 19. Family members say that on that day they were not particularly worried; he was in an armored vehicle, doing his job. Only in hindsight did the full picture become clear.
The lion remains
His sister says Tomer’s friends used to call him “a giant lion”, even before his enlistment. Strong, powerful, with green eyes. “That really was his nickname,” she emphasizes, adding, “He truly was a lion.” She extends her hand, showing a tattoo of a lion “with green eyes like Tomer’s.”
“My lion is always on my right,” his father says, pointing to tattoos that accompany him as well.
What he left behind, his mother says, is a unique discourse, a deep understanding and optimism — first and foremost the very unique dialogue they shared. A mutual understanding that, on the one hand, she misses deeply, but on the other accompanies her in her mind and thoughts. “Even when I’m in the darkest places,” she says, “I hear him whispering to me his smiling, uplifting words.”
His words remain the family’s motto: “Dream, smile, achieve”
“I talk to him a lot,” his mother says, noting that he was a very optimistic child who saw the glass as half full, and also made sure to show it to those around him.“Tomer had a saying: ‘Dream, smile, achieve,’ and that really is, I think, the motto of the entire family, and we all live by it. Every morning we get up and try to smile as much as possible and fulfill all our dreams for him.”
According to her, “it’s something that was left to us as a command; to carry on his light, to spread his light in the world and to give to others, to be there for others who need us.” And so they continue to spread his light and to be there for others, as he was.
May his memory be a blessing.
Sergeant
Tomer Leibovitz OBM