Glass, Yisrael

Yisrael, the only son of Shifra and Avraham Glass, was born on 6.11.1908 in Podkamin, near Brody, Poland. At the outbreak of the First World War he moved with his parents to Vienna where he first absorbed the ideas of the Zionist movement. When he returned to his hometown he completed his studies in elementary school and as a youth he joined the “Hechalutz Hamizrachi”. When some of his friends immigrated to Israel he also prepared to immigrate with them, but because of his parents’ opposition, he was forced to remain in Poland. After 1929 he joined his friends who had re-established the branch of “Hechalutz Hamizrachi” and the “Bnei Akiva” movement in his city. Yisrael made aliyah to Eretz Israel after a difficult struggle with his parents. He joined the “Avraham Group”, worked in the orchards in the village of Pines, on the roads and in the farms in Givat Ada, Hadera and Kfar HaRoeh. The immigration laws during the Mandate period separated him from his girlfriend who remained in the Diaspora. This caused Yisrael great suffering. Yisrael was one of the first settlers in Kfar Etzion. Most of the time he served as a patrolman and alternately worked in afforestation and construction. In the summer of Sivan 5707, his girlfriend arrived and they married. His parents and the rest of his family were murdered in the Diaspora. Yisrael fell In the last attack of the Gush on the 4th of Iyar, 13.5.1948. On the 25th of Cheshvan 5710 (17.11.1949) he was laid to rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.