Elbek, Eliahu (Abu Dahud)

Son of Serah and David, was born in 1892 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. He received his elementary education at a Jewish religious school and completed high school at the Alliance school in his hometown. After a while he was ordained to teach English and French and served as a teacher. At the beginning of the century his father, one brother and two of his sisters immigrated to Eretz Israel and settled in Jerusalem. During the First World War, Eliyahu was drafted into the Turkish army and served in his ranks until the end of the war. After the war, he married the Nawi family and started trading, mainly exporting raw wool to England. In the wake of the global economic crisis of the 1930s, which also affected Eliahu and the murder of his brother-in-law by the Arabs – following jealousy and threats – Eliahu decided to immigrate to Israel with his family in 1933. In the early years of the country he found no livelihood. In 1939 he opened a grocery store from which he made his living until the day he fell. Elijah was an educated man who had mastered many languages, but devoted most of his free time to Jewish studies. His son, Abraham, was killed in the bombing of the King David Hotel by the Irgun, which deepened his faith in religion and began to devote most of his time to religious observance and religious studies. Elijah was forced into a heavy bombardment of Jerusalem by the Arab Legion and was assigned to the “People’s Guard” and distributed food to the besieged residents of Jerusalem, who was brought to a temporary burial in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. And three daughters, brothers and sisters who lived at the time in Baghdad and Egypt.