A year after her husband, Rabbi Capt. (Res.) Avraham Yosef Goldberg, was killed in Lebanon; his widow, Rachel Goldberg, married Aminadav Rothenberg on Sunday evening. The wedding took place in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion and was officiated by IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Karim.
Rothenberg teaches at Jerusalem’s Himmelfarb High School, where the late Rabbi Goldberg also taught.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich congratulated Rachel on X, writing: “Racheli Goldberg — in her righteousness, nobility and courage, in her mourning and her renewal — is the symbol of Israel’s eternity and the growth of its redemption. ‘By your blood you shall live.’ Mazal tov and may your home be everlasting.”
Friends of Rabbi Goldberg from the 8207th Battalion also sent blessings: “Mazal tov to Rachel Goldberg, widow of our battalion rabbi, Avi, of blessed memory, who married Aminadav Rothenberg this evening. Our battalion commander, Yuval Dagan, had the honor of blessing the couple under the chuppah. ‘An eye weeps with sadness, yet the heart rejoices.’”
Rachel, who has eight children — Yehuda, Shira, Talia, Hadas, Elishiv, Hillel, Reut and Naveh — married Rothenberg, who is also a widower.
In an interview last month, she was asked how her new husband felt stepping into a circle once shared with her late spouse. “Yes, it was strange for Aminadav, definitely,” she said. “I wasn’t in a place of comparison at all, so he had to explain that it felt strange. For me, it wasn’t about replacing Avi in any way. The first thing Aminadav told my brother when he suggested the idea was, ‘I’m not as righteous as Avi.’ He really is righteous — just in a different way. They share many qualities, especially emotional, spiritual and social ones, but they also have differences.”
About a month after her husband’s death, Rachel told said Avi’s decision to volunteer for reserve duty stemmed from a deep sense of duty to the nation, even though, at 43 and as a father of eight, he was no longer required to serve.
“He served because he believed the people of Israel needed it,” she said. “After his regular service as a Golani ‘Negevist,’ he continued for years in reserve duty with the Etzion Territorial Brigade. Out of devotion and a drive to act for the people of Israel, he entered the military rabbinate course and graduated with honors.”
“In his last year, he did 250 days of reserve service,” she added. “He loved life, and he would have preferred to be at home — hugging the kids, advising, making us laugh. But in this world, with the kind of neighbors our beloved country has — cursed enemies who want to harm Israel — he felt it was his duty to stand up, take action, sweat and carry on. His comrades said he carried the heaviest bag in the battalion.”