Carteshevsky, Daniel (Uzi)

Son of-Chana (Gracia) and Julius Son of-Zion, grandson of Meir Kertzewski (one of the first builders in Rishon Letzion). Born in Tel Aviv on October 2, 1927, he immigrated to Cairo with his parents in 1927 and studied there in an Italian school, where he returned to Israel with his parents in 1934. The family settled in Rishon Letzion, He went to work in the engineering department of the British army in the Sarafand camp, where he specialized in metalwork (plumbing, frames, mechanics). He devoted his spare time to sports activities at the Hapoel branch in Rishon Letzion, and participated in a national course for bodybuilding, gymnastics and games instructors and was certified by the Department of Cultural Culture He played his part in a modest and dedicated manner, out of a desire to contribute his part to improving the physical fitness of the Hebrew youth in Israel, and he tended to work in the sports and social establishments of Hapoel in Rishon Letzion. He played for a while in Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion, and on 24 February 1948 he enlisted in the mobile company in the moshav and served in a class whose function was to secure workers in orchards in the Efraim region and in other services. Participated in the harassment of Arab transport, the explosion of bridges on the Jaffa-Ramle road, and the conquest of the village of Rubin and Tsrifin. When he entered the battalion, he also wanted to be useful in his knowledge of metalwork, volunteered for the sabotage unit, and after a short course he set out for combat operations. He also served as a machine gunner and with the same simplicity and dedication he used to do in work and sports, he now worked in the army. Daniel was outstanding for his precision and responsibility for obeying orders and for his friends and willingness to help others. Even his hostility toward the Egyptian enemy (“Today I have to knock them properly, I want to be the first to kill them”) was more out of love for the homeland and the people than out of hatred for the enemy. After the first truce he was transferred with his unit southward, participated in raids on Kastina and in the no-man’s-land near Ashdod, and there, as a machine gunner in a raid on the Egyptian array in the Ashdod area, it fell on the 17th of Tammuz 5707 (17.7.1948). The military cemetery in Rishon Letzion, and his commander wrote to his parents: “To you, the parents of the heroic son, we say: Be proud of your son because only thanks to such sons was the State of Israel established”