Eizenstadt, Arie (Arielush)

Son of Malka and Zevi-Elimelech (Yozhik) was born on January 12, 1928, in Tel Aviv. He studied at the Tel Aviv School of Education, later at the Max Payne Professional School and the Shalva Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. In the school he joined Hashomer Hatzair and became active in it. He left the gymnasium on the threshold of the eighth grade and began working in the Solel Boneh workshop. At the same time, he devoted himself to the movement, especially to the Hashomer Hatzair branch in Holon. When he was 17 he joined the Palmach, even though the movement did not want to be released from his post, and served around Jerusalem – Beit Ha’arava, Ramat Rachel, Kiryat Anavim and Ma’ale Hahamisha. He was called by his friends – Arilosh. He was an excellent guide, a devoted friend and a good soldier. On “Black Saturday” (June 29, 1946) he was arrested in Ramat Rachel and held for a month in Latrun. On November 29, 1947, with the UN General Assembly resolution on the partition of the land, he went to his base in Kiryat Anavim, accompanied the convoys to the Dead Sea, drove to Gush Etzion to find the former members of Kibbutz Revadim and they accepted him to their kibbutz. He was sent as a guide to a group of sappers in Beit Ha’arava and from there to a second course in Kiryat Anavim, where he participated in the battle for Deir Yassin, and in Tel Aviv he received the horrific news of the fall of Gush Etzion. As part of the 7th Brigade, and trained in the operation of half-tracks. Aryeh was the battalion’s sabotage officer. He left with his battalion on the night of May 30-31 for the second attack on Latrun, Operation son of-Nun Bet, for the breakthrough to Jerusalem. He and his friends dreamed of setting up a new spot called Revadim to commemorate the fallen members. He did not have time to say goodbye to his family. It was an act outside the framework he was accustomed to, and for the first time he feared he would not return, but was consoled by the task being successful and that was the main thing. Arieh was the commander of the half-track squadron, whose mission was to break through the Latrun police wall and lead the force, but the heavy fire fired by Legion soldiers was damaged and failed to carry out the explosion, (30.5.1948) On the 17th of Cheshvan 5710 (November 17, 1949) he was transferred to the military cemetery at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem with the heroes of the campaign.