Freibas, Menachem

He was born on October 24, 1922 in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, as a member of a family of Admorim. The child, gifted with a light perception and a good memory, could read at the age of 3 and at the age of seven he would study the reading for days on end. He studied at the “Mizrachi” school in Warsaw and excelled in his studies. Menachem was 10 years old when he immigrated to Eretz Israel. The boy felt happy when he came to Israel, but he was saddened by his encounter with the cruel reality. The riots of 1926 shocked him. He went up to mourn the graves of the saints, and at the age of 15 he volunteered to guard despite his mother’s protests. “The shameful attitude of the British authorities towards the immigrants who knocked on the gates of the land has damaged his faith in man, in culture and in the integrity of the world.” He was full of will and willingness to help and believed in the ability of the united people to help his brothers in the Diaspora, and the distress of his murdered brothers in Europe tore his heart and he wrote a great deal about it and expressed his pain, agony, and rage. On 22 Adar, March 2, 1940, Menachem as the emissary of the Haganah, went on the Eden Cinema stage and asked the audience to protest The White Paper. The film administration called the British police and the policemen who came dragged Menachem and beat him. Two days later, on the 4th of Adar I, he died of his wounds, Menachem and his grandfather, for whom he is named, were both murdered with terrible cruelty and sacrificed for the sanctification of God. Menachem was brought to rest on the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple Mount.