Valley Parents of Soldier who Died Fighting Hamas this Weekend Depart for Israel

The parents of a 24-year-old Woodland Hills native who died while fighting with the Israeli Defense Forces departed for Israel today to arrange for their son's funeral.

Stuart and Evelyn Steinberg, of Encino, attended a candlelight vigil in honor of their son, Max, Sunday night in West Hills. Max Steinberg died Sunday while serving as a volunteer with the IDF's Golani Brigade and taking part in ground operations in Gaza.

Steinberg, a graduate of El Camino Real High School and onetime student at Pierce College, was one of 13 members of the Golani Brigade killed in fighting with Hamas.

"He felt that if this was his calling that being on the sideline or even being in a backseat was just not going to work," Stuart Steinberg said.

He said his son was deeply affected by a trip he took with the family to Israel in 2012, and that led him to volunteer.

"Max had an amazing connection with the people," he said. "The experience was beyond anything he personally could have imagined."

Steinberg said his son also recognized that fighting with the Golani would put him on the front lines.

"The Golani, and he knew this, that he would be as he said it, first in," Stuart Steinberg said. "That was the mission, that was the purpose and the understanding."

Evelyn Steinberg also said her son wanted to be on the front lines.

"Every role in the army is important, whether you're working in the kitchen -- it doesn't matter where you're working," she told the crowd at the vigil. "But there are those who wouldn't want to go into combat, but Max did."

The IDF claims that 140 rockets were fired into Israel from the densely populated Shejaiya district, and that 10 tunnels leading to Israel have been discovered there, the Jewish Journal reported from Los Angeles.

--City News Service