Ashkenazi, Abraham

The son-in-law of the city of Yaffa and Shlomo, grandson of Rabbi Rachamim Mizrahi, descended from a respected family of rabbis. Born in 1926 in Aleppo, Syria, he received a traditional religious education and studied at a French school. When he was 16, he sent a hand in trade and did good, but his Lev continued to the land of Israel beyond the border. He was a member of a Zionist-religious youth association, learned Hebrew, and swallowed thirsty information from Israel. In 1945, at the age of 19, he finished his business, despite his parents’ attempts to avoid it, and immigrated to Israel. His enthusiastic letters aroused his great family – parents, eight sons and daughters, grandmother, uncles and aunts – to follow him and risk the rough roads of the Syrian-Palestine border until his family arrived safely (his mother was arrested three times by the Syrians and sentenced to prison) . The family settled in Kiryat Shlomo (Kiryat Matalon) near Petah Tikva, and Avraham continued to engage in commerce. He was an enthusiastic Haganah member and on the first call he enlisted in a sabotage unit in the Engineering Corps. He underwent a sabotage course, excelled in him and served in the Alexandroni Brigade. On the 15th of Sivan 5708 (June 15, 1948), he was killed while carrying out a mine attack near Ramat Hakovesh, while he was trying to save three friends from the danger of the explosion and was brought to rest in the Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery.