Crispin, Shimon

Shimon was born in 1933 in Casablanca, Morocco, where he studied religious studies and immigrated to Israel in 1952. In Morocco, his native country, he was a member of Zionist youth movements, and when he grew up he was trained to work for the immigration of Moroccan Jews He spent several years in France, where he worked for North African Jews to immigrate to Israel, and was drafted into the IDF at the end of 1952, the year he immigrated to Israel. He served in the supply force and in various armored units, successfully completed a course for armored personnel carriers and armored patrols, and was an outstanding soldier devoted to and loved by his commanders and soldiers. For some eighteen years and even attained the rank of senior foreman. He excelled in his work, and several times he was sent by the factory for professional training in his fields of expertise. He received letters of appreciation from his superiors, thanks to his great expertise and extensive experience in the factory. Shimon was endowed with a great deal of physical strength, and was therefore known as the Iron Man, who knew how to overcome the difficulties of hard work in the Dead Sea pools, in harsh climates, in summer and winter. As a reservist he participated in the “Kadesh” system and in the Six Day War and served for long periods in reserve duty, in combat units of the Armored Corps. Shimon was a dedicated worker and a loyal family man. “There was a combination of tenderness and strength, concern and courage, simplicity and nobility,” wrote one of his friends, whom they had known for many years. In his few spare hours, he was always available to help a friend, a neighbor and a bad person. He loved his family and his two greatest pride in his life were his children and the factory, where he was a veteran of the workers and contributed to him from his best years, and even saw his blossoming and prosperity. In the last years of his life, Shimon was interested in caring for marginalized youth. He joined a community club in Be’er Sheva as a volunteer and did much to rehabilitate youth in the city. Mainly he worked among young people without work and young offenders. During the Yom Kippur War, Shimon was a half-track driver in an armored unit and took part in the fierce battles in the Sinai, on the day of the 13 th of December 1973, after the cease-fire, he was killed in an explosion near him. In Be’er Sheva, left behind a wife, two sons and a daughter, parents and five brothers, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant at the Dead Sea Works journal.