Bornstein, Yehoshua

Was born on March 15, 1905, in the town of Rejewiec, Russia, where he studied in the cheder and in the yeshivas of Cube and Yekaterinoslav and was educated in the tradition of Israel, the Zionist idea and the Hebrew culture he absorbed in his father’s house, As a youth he joined the Hehalutz movement and in 1920, after the Communist revolution in Russia, he joined the Red Army and served in the cavalry, where he stood out in his physical strength and bravery.In 1921 he moved to Poland, He worked in the “Tzrifin” group in the moshav of Balfuria and later joined the Joseph Trumpeldor Labor Battalion. As a member of the “Gdud” he worked in Tel-Yosef, Haifa, Jerusalem, Kfar Giladi and the “Shepherds Group” in Hamra. After leaving the battalion, he went to work at the Dead Sea Works in Kfar Saba, in the Solel Boneh company and in the construction of the power station of the Israel Electric Corporation in Haifa. Eventually he became a regular employee at the Israel Electric Corporation and settled in Kiryat Haim. All the time he was also active in the ranks of the Haganah and was active in sports. He had a well-developed sense of humor and was working and public. “Yehoshua immediately understood the spirit of every member of the Labor Party and knew how to bring him out of the depths,” said one of his friends, “and we all sought his closeness and friendship as we knew his devotion and appreciated his wisdom.” During the War of Independence, on the 18th of Adar II 5708 (18.3.1948), he fell at the gates of Acre with three of his friends by gang fire while on their way to renew electricity to the western Galilee communities. Yochanan left a wife, a boy and a girl, and his name was immortalized in a memorial booklet published by Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan and in the book “The Sons of Kiryat Haim in the War of Independence”