More Jewish Casualties in Iraq

Marine Sgt. Alan D. Sherman, a reservist serving with B Company of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, based in Dover, PA., was killed on June 29, 2004, along with two other soldiers, when a bomb exploded near the front of his convoy. This was his unit’s reported second tour of duty in Iraq. Sherman, an Ocean Township, New Jersey resident, was described at his Jewish funeral “as a Marine with a soft heart.” He was the father of two young sons. Despite his divorce, he and his ex-wife remained on good terms and he frequently saw his sons, Joshua and Logan.

Michael Tarlavsky, 30, was killed August 12, 2004 during a raid amid the fierce fighting in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

He was an army captain with the 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group [Green Berets], based in Fort Campbell, Ky. He died in a hail of small-arms fire as he led Iraqi police trainees in a fight with insurgents who had blown up a school. This was Tarlavsky’s second tour-of-duty in Iraq, having spent five months there in the beginning of 2003. He also fought in Afghanistan. Michael Tarlavsky was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Tarlavsky was born in Latvia, in the former Soviet Union. His family first moved to Israel, and then came to the United States when Michael was 5. They eventually made their home in Clifton, N.J. Michael Tarlavsky was an Eagle Scout and captain of the swim team at Clifton High School. He was an avid marathon runner in recent years.

Michael Tarlavsky always wanted to be a soldier, according to his sister, Elina. He attended Rutgers University on a ROTC scholarship and was later assigned to Korea’s DMZ, where among other duties he provided security for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (“He bragged most about that [assignment],” his sister told the AP.) Tarvalasky married another army captain in 2002 and settled in Tennessee. His wife gave birth to a son earlier this year.

The “Newark Star-Ledger” reported that Tarlavsky’s parents combined Russian and Jewish traditions as they mourned their son: they propped up on their coffee table a photograph of Michael in uniform; a Yartzeit candle; and a shot glass filled to the rim with vodka. Michael’s father, Yury, a veteran of the Soviet merchant marine, explained that a shot of vodka is a Russian way of honoring soldiers who have been killed.

Yury Tarlavsky said of his son: “He did his job very good. I’m very proud of my boy for what he did for his country.”