Erlich, Yitzhak (Itzik)

Son of Yaffa and Yosef, was born on August 10, 1927, in Rishon Letzion. After graduating from elementary school he studied at the Max Payne vocational school. For two years he worked in frameworks, but his ambition was to continue studying. From his youth he was a member of the Gadna and the Hagana, and he participated in combat activities around Petah Tikva before graduating, and Yitzhak was personally aware of the spiritual distress of Hanoar Haoved and said that he devoted his life to teaching – for the sake of the disadvantaged. Of the workers’ stream in Givat Hashlosha, but when he completed his studies – during Pesach 5708 – he did not go on teaching but enlisted and joined the Palmach. After a period of training, where he also served as a Hebrew teacher for the Gahal, he moved to the Negev Brigade . On the eve of the second truce, he went with his battalion to attack the Hulikat outposts, as part of Operation Death to the Intruder, in an attempt to break through the Negev. The force was forced to retreat in light of the enemy’s superiority, and in this battle Yitzhak fell on the 11th of Tammuz 5708 (18.7.1948). It was only when the outpost was occupied during Operation Yoav that the Tomb of the Fallen was discovered and they were transferred on 6 December 1948 to Ruhama and buried there. One of his friends testified: “The expression of a wise student in the future accompanied the boy, the boy, the young man and finally the soldier until his last day.” On the 26th of Tammuz 5766 (26.6.1950) he was put to rest at the military cemetery in the village of Warburg.