Henkin, Yehezkel
Son of Yitzhak. He was born in 1881 in Hommel, Russia, where he was the commander of local self-defense in 1903. After the outbreak of the First World War, when the Turks announced a conscription, Yehezkel volunteered for the police and impressed the Turkish commander in Jerusalem with his excellent Arabic accent. He was appointed as a rider, whose job was to guard the borders of Rishon Letzion and then move to Merhavia. One day he came to Menahemiah in the midst of an attack by the Arabs surrounding the settlement. It was unfortunate that on the same day the men from the settlement were absent because they had gone to Tiberias to register for the army. Yehezkel and the guard, who came with him to the site, came to the defense of the colony and managed to mislead the attackers into thinking that more weapons were hiding. They also succeeded in hitting Sheikh Issa, the head of the assailants, and the attackers dispersed and fled for their lives. After a short while, Yehezkel became sick with the yellow fever. On the 28th of Kislev, 23 12.1916, he died of this illness. He was laid to eternal rest in the cemetery in Yavne’el and then transferred to the guards’ quarters in the Kfar Giladi cemetery. He left a wife, two sons and a daughter.
