Elster, Ephraim

Ephraim, son of Sarah and Eliezer Elster, was born on the 10th of Adar, March 16, 1924 in Vienna, Austria, where he completed elementary school and excelled in his studies. He immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1938. Ephraim joined the Hanoar Haoved movement. He was known by his acquaintances as a “living encyclopedia.” Ephraim joined Kibbutz Be’erot as their representative out of a sense of duty to help support his parents. He returned to Tel Aviv and worked in a factory and got married. When the battles of the War of Independence broke out, his work in the factory was recognized as essential to the effort, but he preferred to go to war. He was offered an officer’s course, but he refused and continued to serve as a private. Ephraim served in one of the Carmeli Brigade battalions in many battles in the Triangle and the Western Galilee, and fell on the 17th of Sivan 5708 (24.6.1948) in the Battle of Kfar Birwa (Ahihud today) in the Western Galilee. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Nahariya.