Kirszner, Yeshaya

He was born in Russia and immigrated to Eretz Israel during the Second Aliyah. During the First World War he was expelled by the Turkish authorities from the country without Ottoman citizenship. He arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, where he made a living selling cigarettes and matches because he did not want a hand-out. When he heard about the organization of the Mule Regiment, he was one of the first volunteers in the battalion. “Can a Jew not go to fight for the Land of Israel, and does the Jew have something more precious than the Land of Israel?” he said. The battalion was sent to the Gallipoli front in Asia Minor for a campaign to control the Dardanelles. Joseph Trumpeldor wrote in his memoirs that he was “one of the best soldiers and men in the battalion, who did not seek the place of danger, but did not evade it either.” In Gallipoli he was wounded, transferred to Alexandria, and he died of his wounds on 29 Sivan, June 11, 1915. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Alexandria and his comrades set up a marble monument on his grave. Joseph Trumpeldor wrote about his character and deeds in his memoirs, and his name was also commemorated in the “House of the Battalions” in Avihail.

Kirszner, Yeshaya

Honored By

Juliette Schor