Cnaani (Karmez), Jacob

Son of Feiga and Mordechai, was born in January 1919 in Siedlce, Poland. He received a popular education and at the age of 11 he joined a Zionist youth movement in his city and was active in it until he immigrated to Israel. In 1939 he boarded the illegal immigrant ship “Assimi”, but the ship was expelled from the country by the Mandatory authorities and only after wandering for three months at sea did it reach Nahariya. Shortly after his arrival in Israel, the Second World War broke out and he was one of the first to enlist in the British army’s British army units. Participated in the battle and withdrawal from Greece. In the bombing of the enemy on the island of Crete he was wounded and lay for four months in a hospital. He later served in the Jewish Brigade. When he was discharged from the army he was sent by Solel Boneh to work for the Anglo-Iranian oil company in Abadan, Iran. When he returned from work, he was hired by the Nesher cement factory and immediately became popular with all the factory workers. He was a loyal and devoted friend to the Histadrut from the day he immigrated to Israel. When the War of Independence broke out after the United Nations General Assembly decided on November 29, 1947, to divide the country into two states, he joined the Haganah as a member of the Haganah in Haifa and accompanied the train to Hadera, 4 May 1948 In the battle to conquer Tantura, an Arab village on the seashore between Haifa and Zichron Yaakov, he was brought to eternal rest in the military burial house in Haifa.