Not many people would voluntarily pack up for reserve duty while battling a terminal illness, but Zvi Eliezer Muller Gabler was not the kind of person who would allow his diagnosis to prevent him from living his life.
Whether it was military service, riding his motorcycle across Israel, or traveling the world, Zvi lived life to the fullest until the very end, when he lost his battle with cancer on February 12 at age 33.
“Everything he did, he did in his very own ‘Zvi’ way,” said his wife, Betty Soibel, in her eulogy at his funeral at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl Military Cemetery.
Born in Toronto as the youngest of four children to Israeli parents, Zvi grew up highly involved in the Jewish community and attended a Jewish day school. From a young age, Zvi knew he wanted to make aliyah and serve in the IDF. He fulfilled this dream in 2010, arriving in Israel as a lone soldier and dedicating his life to serving his new country.
Betty said that the inspiration for this decision came when Zvi was a child and learned of the 1976 Operation Entebbe – the daring mission by Israeli forces to rescue hostages held by PFLP terrorists in Uganda, who had hijacked an Air France plane filled with many Israelis.
In the middle of his three-year service in the Givati Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit, an elite combat unit, Zvi officially made aliyah. After completing his army service, where he was selected for the President’s Award of Excellence, he moved to Jerusalem and worked in the Prime Minister’s Office.
For fun, Zvi also worked some evenings as a safety counselor at a rock-climbing gym at Teddy Stadium, where he and Betty met in 2016. Betty had come to Israel to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for a semester and went one day with her friend to the rock-climbing gym.
When Zvi approached her to correct her technique, they hit it off, talking and laughing for hours. Two days later, Betty’s friend told her that Zvi had asked for her phone number. They went on a date, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Terminal diagnosis
Three years later, when Zvi was sent to the hospital for tests following a motorcycle accident while in reserve duty, an X-ray showed a large mass. After additional tests, he was diagnosed with stage IV adrenal cancer. He was only 27, and the news turned their lives upside down.
The prognosis for this aggressive cancer, and particularly at that stage, is poor; generally, patients have less than a year to live. But Zvi made it through multiple rounds of various treatments and six surgeries in the five and a half years since his 2019 diagnosis.
Betty recalled with a laugh that, in true Zvi fashion, he had dyed his hair blue before a 12-hour surgery “so that everybody would remember him and so that it would bring a smile and laughter to the surgeons’ faces.”
During that time, he focused on living in the present, making the most of the time he had. This was poignantly illustrated by the fact that a mere week after his diagnosis, he proposed to Betty during a hike at Ein Prat. It was “the best and most wonderful thing he could have done for us,” Betty reflected.
They married in September 2021, weathering the ups and downs as a team, not letting anything stop them from creating a life full of adventures and beautiful memories – from road trips across America, to traveling across Romania and Georgia, and rescuing sick kittens in Jerusalem, the city they called home.
Throughout this time, Zvi continued his reserve duty and even completed a paramedic course so that he could save lives.
Called up for reserve duty
On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Zvi received a call-up for emergency military service following Hamas’s attack in southern Israel. He anticipated the call-up and had already packed his bags. Though he was having trouble breathing, he reassured Betty: “It’s fine. I’ll be fine; don’t worry about it.”
By 11:30 a.m., suited up in his military uniform, he mounted his motorcycle and joined his unit to pick up the necessary gear. The next day, they arrived at Kibbutz Re’im, where they stayed for a couple of days before going to two other communities that had been invaded by Hamas terrorists.
During the initial two weeks, his unit dealt with the carnage from the massacre, clearing bodies in the area, and searching for terrorists who were still at large. Toward the end of that time, it became even harder for Zvi to breathe, so his friend drove him to the hospital. His lungs were almost completely blocked, and he needed another operation.
For Zvi, the hardest part was being unable to rejoin his army unit afterward. However, he continued doing everything possible to support his unit.
“He lived by the idea that if you had the capability, you had the responsibility,” Betty said. No matter what his struggles were, Zvi was dedicated to doing the right thing. As a testament to his sheer determination, he was still doing shifts as a paramedic three weeks before his death.
At the memorial ceremony for him last month at Mount Herzl, Betty said, “Since you got sick, I felt like we were living on borrowed time. I was scared that I didn’t know what was going to happen, if and when you were going to leave me.
“You, on the other hand, from the very dark day in June 2019 that you got the prognosis, understood that every minute you had on this Earth was a gift, a bonus. You knew you were so lucky to still be here. You knew, every moment of the last five years, that you were defying the odds, that you weren’t supposed to be here, that you had been given a second life,” a reference to a quote by author Neil Gaiman.Following the memorial ceremony, Betty organized a walking tour across Jerusalem, sharing some of the spots that played a role in their love story. From Nahlaot gems to cafés and parks, the walk paid tribute to the life they had built together, despite all obstacles, appreciating the gift every day gave them. The tour culminated at the Lev Ha’ir Community Center in Nahlaot, where family and friends told stories and sang songs.
In sharing Zvi’s story, it was particularly important for Betty to highlight the values that defined her husband’s life. Zvi believed in working toward equality and coexistence in Israel, participating in initiatives such as Tech2Peace, a joint organization that hosts intensive seminars for young Palestinians and Israelis.
“At the end of the day, Zvi loved this place with his heart and his soul. He would do anything to be here and protect it,” Betty said. “He believed that this land belonged to all the people of this land… He saw Palestinians as equals and as people who deserve dignity and human rights and life – a normal life here.”
She acknowledged, “It’s hard for people, especially in this war, to hold space for the fact that he was both a combat soldier and someone who was deeply committed to justice and equality.”
In commemorating Zvi’s life, she said, “It’s really important to me that people remember how uniquely Zvi balanced those two identities without ever losing himself in the process.”
