Lafold, Yitzchak

He was born on November 4, 1911, in the town of Tlomac in Galicia. At the age of thirteen, he joined the Hashomer Hatzair branch in the area, even though this step involved the danger of deportation from the Gymnasium, and indeed the deportation was not long in coming. In the nest he liked all his friends. At the age of sixteen he went to agricultural training and after many efforts adapted to the place and its conditions and remained there until the end of the training period. In 1929, he arrived in Palestine with the first of the Fifth Aliya and was absorbed in Kibbutz Aliya Bet in Mizra. A nineteen-year-old boy, tall, broad-shouldered, with a brown face, his eyes glistening, his mouth laughing wide and healthy, revealing two rows of white teeth, and so modest, so quiet, careful not to make his voice heard. He was sent to a kibbutz near Afula. On 19 Iyar, May 16, 1941, he took a lesson in hand grenades, and suddenly a mishap occurred and smoke came out of a hand grenade that was found nearby. Yitzhak threw himself on the grenade to prevent victims in the nearby children’s home. He was seriously wounded and immediately transferred to the hospital where he died, and was brought to rest in the cemetery of Kibbutz Mizra. Kibbutz Mizra recorded his memory in a memorial booklet, and his life stories were published in a booklet dedicated to the fallen of the Jezreel Valley.