Kruchik, Raphael (Rafi)

Raphael (Rafi) Kruchik son of Chava and Zvi, was born on November 9, 1928, in Jerusalem. His family moved to Tel Aviv and after completing his studies at Tel-Nordoi Elementary School in Tel Aviv, he joined an Israeli youth movement to Degania B, where he completed his general education, and was accepted as a regular member of the agriculture and established his own family. In the winter of 1948, at the beginning of the War of Independence, Raphael served as the commander of a squad of saboteurs and performed many tasks with courage and agility, including the bombing of houses in the first attack on Tzemach. In contrast to the accepted rule that the saboteur must retreat with all the fighters, he ruled: “The sapper is the last to leave the house.” When the Tzemach police station was blown up on April 28, 1948, an operation that resulted in the Arabs evacuating Zemach and until the arrival of the Syrians, the nightmare over the Jordan Valley was removed. Raphael was seriously injured and died that day, the 19th of Nissan. Raphael was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Degania Aleph. His memory was mentioned in the booklet “At the Gate, Degania B in the battles.”