Israelovich, Yona

Son of Elchanan. He was born in 1902 in Poland, in a town near Lodz, where he was educated and raised. In 1934 he immigrated to Israel with his wife and small son, and the family settled in Tel Aviv. Here he joined the ranks of the Haganah. Yona Katsav was a professional, but in Israel he found it difficult to find work and for a long time lived a life of poverty and distress. As a member of the Histadrut and the Building Workers’ Union, he managed to integrate into temporary work, mainly in the sand dunes of Tel Aviv’s southern neighborhoods. He was known to have a pleasant temperament and had many friends among the workers in the city. Every day he took a bus that took workers to work. On August 22, 1938, the bus was attacked by Arab murderers who fired at it from within the orchards. The driver managed to get the bus out of danger, but Yona was wounded by the shots and shortly afterwards died of his wounds. He was laid to rest at the cemetery on Trumpeldor Street in Tel Aviv. He left a wife and a son. His name is mentioned in the booklet “Kofar HaIshuv” and information about his death was published in Haaretz and Davar.