Kaufman, Bezalel (Lyca)

Son of Anna and Mendel, was born near the city of Iasi, Romania. He attended a Romanian elementary school and received a traditional Jewish education. He studied boxing and worked at Iasi in an ironwork factory. After passing through all the horrors of World War II, he did not see a future for himself and his parents in Romania, so he set out on the Bericha route to Austria and Germany, where he was a youth counselor in a DP camp. At the end of the winter of 1948, he enlisted in a training camp of the Hagana, studied the use of weapons and noted with satisfaction that the hard training had made him a good soldier, and he wrote to his parents: “I passed this course and also the second, In Israel, I also offer my services, so that you may follow me and my brother to the Holy Land. And if victory will be ours, as before, our life will not be beauty, because we are all going to live in Israel – this is the slogan and we will win. “Bezalel came to Israel with the Gahal convoy on April 28, 1948 and after additional training days Was stationed in Brigade 7. When the Legion entered the war, the situation in Jerusalem deteriorated and the road to it was cut off by the legion of Latrun. The breakthrough was planned for Operation son of-Nun and the mission was assigned to Brigade 7. The brigade’s fighters encountered better enemy forces and had to retreat. This battle took place on the fifteenth of Iyar 5708 (24 May 1948). On the 11th of Adar 5702 (28.2.1950) he was laid to rest at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.