Cohen, Balfour-Victor

Son of Regina and Yoseph, one of the first Zionists, founder of the Center for French Culture in Jerusalem, was born on June 4, 1925 in Jerusalem. (His Hebrew name was Raphael Shalom Chai, after his father’s father, the chief rabbi of Tunisia). In 1941 he enlisted in the army, and in 1944 he took a commanding course and served as a guide, coach, and commander. With the outbreak of the War of Independence he stopped his studies and was on the first lines of fire and participated in the battles and sabotage in enemy bases in the village of Shiloah, Jarrah, Castel, etc. In Jerusalem, he was appointed as the commander’s deputy, and during the first truce, he was a liaison officer alongside UN officers, accompanied by food convoys that made their way to Jerusalem via Latrun. He also volunteered outside his turn to serve as the commander of the first convoy of food and passengers, who was about to make aliyah to Jerusalem and use the consent of the Arab Legion on the way to Latrun, despite the opposition of the Arab Legion. On September 22, 1948. That day, he got a letter the of appointment to serve as a representative of the Ministry of Minorities in Ramle and was brought to rest in the Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery.