According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu, a 1964 graduate of Cheltenham High School, was a leader in Wyncote, at Harvard, on the soccer field, and on the battlefield.

From his biography: “Despite the difficulties he faced with the new language and environment, he quickly excelled in his studies. During the summer of 1963, he joined some of his friends from Israel, who came to New Hampshire to work as counsellors at a Young Judea camp.”

While in high school, he wrote in a 1963 letter, “The trouble with the youth here is that their lives are meager in content. I ought to be ready at every moment of my life to confront myself and say—’This is what I’ve done’.” 

The brother of Israel’s head of state Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoni went on to become an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces.

On July 4, 1976, Yoni lost his life while leading an anti-terrorism raid on the airport at Entebbe, Uganda which freed and saved the lives of over 100 hostages.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu’s legacy continues to live on through The Jonathan Institute, an Israeli organization established to “bring in sympathetic leaders, experts, and journalists to get across the message: the PLO is a terrorist organization and the Soviet Union is its parent and supporter.”

For more on Yoni Netanyahu, you can click here. For Langerman’s entry on Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, you can click here.

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