IDF Lone Soldier Max Steinberg’s Funeral, Shiva in Jerusalem Draw 30,000 — Including John Kerry

“How’s your day?” Kerry asked as he sat down. “How’s your day?” Evie asked back. “My day’s going better than yours,” he said.

The mother, father, sister and brother of 24-year-old Woodland Hills native and fallen IDF soldier Max Steinberg, though heartbroken and jet-lagged, said they were warmed by the incredible turnout at his funeral on Mt. Herzl today.

“I probably couldn’t stand here and talk without breaking down, without… all this love and all these people,” Steinberg’s mom, Evie, said into a semicircle of news mics after the Jerusalem ceremony. “It’s so overwhelming and so incredible.”

Israeli media estimates put funeral attendance between 20,000 and 35,000 people. It was hard to tell for sure: Heads in army caps andkippas stretched as far as anyone could see, back up into the hills of the cemetery. It was at this very site, on a Birthright trip in 2012, that Steinberg noticed the grave of American lone soldier Michael Levin and began considering a career in the IDF.

Steinberg was one of seven members of the IDF’s elite Golani brigade killed last weekend when their tank ran over an explosive that had been planted in the streets of Shujaya, in east Gaza City. It was July 20, the third night of Israel’s current ground operation to wipe out terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza strip, and the deadliest night of the conflict for both sides: About 60 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Read more: http://www.mywesternwall.net/2014/07/25/idf-lone-soldier-max-steinbergs-funeral-shiva-in-jerusalem-draw-30000-including-john-kerry.html