Elkind, Aryeh

The youngest son of Mina and Avraham, was born in December 1922 in Riga, Latvia. In 1925, the family immigrated to Israel with their six children and joined the “Trudeldor” Labor Battalion in Jerusalem. Six months later they left the battalion and after seven years they all moved to Kibbutz Beit Hashita near the Harod Spring. Aryeh’s teenage years were spent in the valley. After completing his studies at the Ein Harod school, he went on a training year at Kibbutz Revivim, and when he returned home he began to work in the cowshed. Only two months later Aryeh sat in the farm and came to call for war against the Nazis. He joined the British Army and served in the Jewish Brigade for four years, during which he wandered in the desert, staying in Egypt, Italy and Western Europe, participating in battles and assisting in the treatment of refugees. In June 1946 he was discharged from the British army, returned to his farm, and immersed himself in the agriculture. However, he was active in the Hagana until his last day. With the outbreak of the War of Independence he moved to active duty and served in the Golani Brigade. Aryeh had a quiet temperament, a naive and humble man who loved man and nature and loved all the members of the agriculture. Mostly he loved the children of the farm who always surrounded him, demanded his closeness and gave him back love. On the morning of the 8th of Adar II 5708 (March 19, 1948), his department came out to take positions on the slopes of the Gilboa, in order to inspect the surroundings and protect the quarry guards, as they approached the area of ​​the Arab village of Norris. As the guards of the quarry retreated, the Arabs attacked the classroom with greater force and began to surround it on both sides, and Aryeh, who felt he had to help two of his friends, fell with them and was brought to rest in the Beit Hashita cemetery.