Cohen, Na’im
Son of Esther and Nissim was born in 1914 in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. In 1940 he immigrated to Israel as a non-Jew and settled in Tiberias. He was married and had two children. In 1941, he volunteered for the British Navy, was captured by the Germans on the island of Crete and was imprisoned in Germany for five years. When he returned, after the victory over Germany and the release of the prisoners, he was active in organizing the aliyah from Syria and Lebanon. At the outbreak of the War of Independence, he served in the Golani Brigade, defended the Old City of Tiberias and served in various positions and in the Jordan Battalion. When Tiberias was liberated and the Arabs abandoned it, he told his commander, who loved him: “Until now we have defended our homes and families, but from today we have to protect the city from afar, so that the enemy will not return.” In good faith and devotion he went to all that he was sent: to take vengeance against his people, to redeem the scattered, to defend from close up and far away from the city he loved. When it seemed that he had come to rest, his young life tragically ended. On the eve of Rosh Hashana (3.9.1948), he went on leave from the Sussita camp to celebrate the holiday with his family and was hit by a truck and died shortly afterwards at the hospital in Tiberias. His second child was born after his death.
