Ben-Yehuda, Yehuda (Didi)

Son of Miriam and Avner, was born on June 12, 1933, in Tirat Shalom, a moshav of Yemenite Jews near Ness Ziona. He attended elementary school in Nes Tziona and, after completing his studies, moved to the “Shevach” vocational school in Tel Aviv. He was the eldest of five children and despite his youth was very active with his father when it came to the security of the area that his father, Avner, was his commander. He and his brother Matityahu, two years younger than him, acted as connections between the positions and Didi graduated with a course of tutoring and individual training courses. When he came back from the course, he organized the liaison class. On the 17th of Sivan 5708 (July 4, 1948), at the age of 15, Didi and his father and brother Matityahu went to inspect a mortar shell that landed on the hill of Kubiba, not far from Tirat Shalom, and did not explode. The shell, which landed there during the battles to contain the Egyptians, exploded in the hands of his father, who tried to dismantle him, causing the death of the three. They were brought to rest in the cemetery in Nes Tziona. Didi left behind a mother, two sisters, and a brother. One of his sisters said about her brothers that when they walked together in the streets of the moshav, people blessed them by saying that God would never separate them, and now the blessing became a curse