Carmeli, Benjamin

Was born on 20.6.1920 during riots and confusion in the city of Odessa, Russia, and since then his parents have decided to speak only Hebrew to them, so that their son will be their mother tongue and fulfill their decision. His parents began to steal the border via the Dniester River, and they miraculously survived the shooting of the Russian soldiers and drowned in the river and reached Bessarabia (then Romania). – The children are in Tel Aviv and then in school. He discovered a musical sense and at the age of six began to learn to play the violin, but was forced to stop. When his father was sent as a teacher to Yavne’el, and even when he was later transferred to the streets, Benyamin was unable to continue, and his connection to music remained an unfulfilled wish all his life. His desire to add knowledge as a father and grandfather did not materialize, because the harsh material reality forced him to go to work at an early age. Before leaving for work, he studied at the Kadouri Agricultural School. For a few months there was a shepherd and this work gave him a sense of serenity and happiness, but found no way to get involved in it. Benjamin worked in the Sadan factory in Tel Aviv, paved roads, irrigated orchards in Rehovot (where he fell ill with tropical malaria) and later as a citrus fruit, and recently as a diamond polisher in a Netanya factory. Was a very active athlete in Maccabi Rehovot, where he was able to escape from roof to roof from the British policemen who chased him for distributing leaflets against the Mandatory authorities for his actions against the illegal immigrants to the Atlantic. In his wonderfully orderly way of life he was a model for many. After moving to work in Netanya, he discussed the conflicts of interests between employers and employees and was the living spirit of the workers’ committee, but did not shift the feeling of contradictions to the social and political sphere and devoted himself to training the young Maccabee in Netanya. Benjamin married a wife, and when his eldest daughter Osnat began to express his feelings and thoughts in a diary he wrote in the form of letters to her that she would read when she grew up and learn to know that “there is nothing that stands in the way of desire.” In his notes he told her about human and national aspirations, victories and defeats on Hebrew sports, various events and unfulfilled youthful dreams. His great love for his small family inspired him to love his family, and he felt compelled to volunteer for his defense even before his enlistment and the birth of his second daughter. In my letter to his wife in the maternity ward, he apologized for his action: “You will not understand me, I could not otherwise … I do not want our daughters to be candidates for the soap industry … My duty as a father forces me to insure the lives of our daughters from these horrors, In his diary, he expressed a universal national “credo”: to fight for the establishment of the state in order to “show all the nations how to run a state of justice.” Benjamin served in the Alexandroni Brigade, first as a sports instructor for recruits in the Netanya camp, and later was transferred to the combat unit of the infantry unit. Shortly after the declaration of the state, he was sent to a diversion against the village of Tira, near Kfar Hess, where he fell with many of his friends on Wednesday, May 13, 1948. He was laid to rest at the cemetery in Tel Mond.