Dolzanski, Dr. Leonid

Dr. Leonid, son of Miriam and Prof. Jacob Dolzanski (an enthusiastic Zionist in Russia and a well-known surgeon in the Jerusalem hospitals), was born in the city of Yekaterinoslav, Russia, and immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1920. He studied medicine at the University of Berlin before graduating in 1926. Dr. Leonid was a member of the Haganah from 1936. On April 13, 1948 he boarded a convoy of doctors to Mount Scopus. The road to Mount Scopus passed through the Arab Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, secured by the British army. On the morning of April 13, 1948, a convoy left for Mount Scopus, after the British promised that the road was open and safe. The convoy encountered an Arab ambush in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and hundreds of Arabs hurled heavy gunfire at it. Some of the vehicles managed to get out and return, but two buses, an ambulance and an escort vehicle were ambushed. In the afternoon, the Arabs set fire to two buses, and only after evening did the British intervene and rescue the survivors from the trapped vehicles. Leonid was among the fallen and was buried in the cemetery in Sanhedria. He left behind a wife and a daughter.