Birenbaum (Opatowski), Chaim

He was born in 1904 in Radom, Poland, to a well-to-do family. When the First World War broke out, the family’s financial situation deteriorated. His father died and he was forced to go to work to help with the household agriculture and support his mother and brother. In 1916 he began to study shoemaking, and then joined the Bund Party, which had most of the city’s Jewish workers. After working hours, he continued to gain knowledge, and his main concern was to study the problems related to the labor and the Jewish labor movement. As a result, he reached the conclusion that he had to leave the Bund and join the Poalei Zion organization. He excelled in his work and his party activities with great dedication. He was elected as a member of the local committee of “Poalei Zion” and in March he worked hard to develop underground activities. He would organize groups of youth and schoolchildren, lead them to hiding places in the forests, and conduct extensive activities and training aimed at establishing foundations for a strong youth union. At the end of 1924 he began his preparations to immigrate to Israel. In the wake of the Polish authorities’ persecution of the leftist parties, he hid in another city and changed his name. In 1925, Chaim immigrated to Eretz Israel and began working in his profession. Although he earned a good salary in his work, he accepted his party’s demand to move to Jerusalem and start working on the train. Here he earned less than half his previous salary. He worked on the train for four years and was fond of all the workers. They respected him and encouraged him to promote their affairs and even chose him to be their representative at the railway workers’ conference held in Haifa. On the day of the outbreak of the bloody riots in Jerusalem, Chaim heard from his train station the voices of the Jews being attacked in the nearby Yemin Moshe neighborhood. He alerted his fellow workers and together they came to the rescue. The handful of young men stood in front of a large Arab crowd and with a sense of heroism pushed the attackers back. The shots aimed at the Arabs towards the neighborhood hit Chaim in his chest, but he remained on guard for many hours until he passed out and was rushed to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, a wild Arab mob attacked the car and continued to hit the wounded, stab and beat them. Chaim spent five weeks in the hospital, and on September 25, 1929, he died of his wounds.