Gurevitch, Baruch (Boria)

Son of Polina and Aryeh. He was born on November 2, 1907 in Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia. He was orphaned from his parents at an early age and moved into a family home. It was an assimilated home, but the boy’s Lev was attracted to Judaism and Zionism and eventually abandoned his relatives and set out on the pioneers’ path. He moved to Israel in 1929 with a first group of immigrants from the Hashomer Hatzair movement and was among the founders of the Lithuanian kibbutz in Binyamina. As a pioneer, Baruch worked on roads, draining swamps and farming. Then he moved to Yavne’el and from there to the Sea of ​​Galilee. In Kinneret, he and his friends laid the foundation for Kibbutz Afikim and joined this kibbutz. Baruch was known as a man of action but never ceased to wonder about the realities of the world. Among his friends, he was also known for his modesty, his consideration of others, his sensitivity to truth and justice, and his unrelenting activity for these values. After the outbreak of World War II, he was one of the first volunteers to fight Nazi Germany. In July 1940, he joined the Hebrew transport unit 462 in the British Army. On its way to Malta, on the 27th of Nissan, 5703 (1943), a convoy of ships was attacked from the air, and the ship “Arianpura”, which drove the company 462, where it served, plunged into the abyss. Baruch was one of the 140 victims of the company. He left a wife and a daughter. His kibbutz published a pamphlet in his memory, which included a description of his character and activities. In the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, a monument was erected in memory of the missing, in the form of a ship and next to it a water pool with the names of the fallen engraved on the bottom. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.