"We promised Amichai we would continue to live": The bereaved father rebuilding the North

Yishai Rubin, who lost his son Amichai, a Golani soldier killed on October 7, is leading the rehabilitation of the North through the 'Tenufa LaTzafon' administration. The article describes the connection between personal grief and public mission, the story of Amichai's heroism, his organ donation that saved five people, and the enlistment of two of his brothers to the same battalion. Rubin discusses budgets, projects, and the need for security.

Yishai Rubin, 53, from Acre, lost his son Staff Sergeant Amichai Shimon Rubin, a soldier in Battalion 51 of the Golani Brigade, who was critically wounded in battle at the MOP South outpost on October 7 and died of his wounds three days later. Amichai was 23 at his fall. His organs saved five people: his lungs were transplanted into a 70-year-old man, his liver into a 23-year-old young man, a liver lobe into an eight-year-old child, and his two kidneys into a seven-year-old girl and a 29-year-old woman. Today, Yishai Rubin is the head of the housing, construction, infrastructure, and demographic growth division in the 'Tenufa LaTzafon' administration. He is leading the post-war rehabilitation of the North, under which over a hundred schools and kindergartens in Kiryat Shmona, Shlomi, and Metula have been restored. Over the next five years, local authorities are expected to receive more than one billion shekels in flexible budgets, of which 220 million shekels were allocated for 2026. A major project is the renewal of Kiryat Shmona's city center with a budget of 355 million shekels. Two of Amichai's brothers enlisted after him in the same battalion, Battalion 51 of Golani. Rubin emphasizes the need for security as a first condition for residents' return, and acknowledges anger at the state for the significant treatment of the North only arriving in 2026.