Lahav (Lachovsky), Israel-Meir

Son of Aryeh HaCohen and Zlata. He was born in Tel Aviv on March 15, 1929. He completed his studies at the “Beit Midrash” elementary school and then the “New High School.” Along with his academic excellence, he was interested in social life He joined the united movement and was a member of the Haganah since 1944. From his youth, he loved aviation with all his soul and at the age of 12 he began to build models and fly them into the air. In 1945, he received a course in Kfar-Yeladim and won first grade and in the following year he won the Dov Hoz Prize from the Tel Aviv Municipality. In July 1946, he served as an Aviation Instructor in the Gadna and various Cubs, and was recruited by the Jewish Agency to the Club for the year of compulsory education in 1947. He was also secretary of this committee in 1947. In August of that year he received the license as an experienced pilot, The Air Force was one of the first of the Israeli Air Force in December and participated in a very daring military airlift operation from Lod to “Sde Dov.” At the height of the War of Independence in 1948, it carried out flights to Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, He was sent to a pilot course in the Czech Republic and returned from there completing his first courses in the air force. On the eve of the declaration of the State of Israel, he was responsible for the “Sde Dov” and was brave and courageous during the bombing that came in the morning, and in 1949 he was ordained as a pilot in the air force and became a flight instructor. 1953 – Graduated with advanced honors from the Israel Air Force – and participated in the Sinai Campaign in October 1956. Throughout 1961 he continued to maintain his connection to aviation and took courses in jet aircraft, and since 1961 he has been a lecturer in the air force and flew to his day the last one. A man with a head and most of the army was a book lover and theater lover and was interested in political and economic problems. In his personality he played an impartiality that stems from his strong desire to maintain honest human relations. Was a sensitive social man and all his knowledge loved him for his gentleness and his other virtues. His activity in the army was quiet and he dealt with it with great humility – but with great stubbornness, with a desire to realize his goals, until he fell in the line of duty on Wednesday, November 20, 1963, and was put to rest at the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul. On the first anniversary of his death, his father and his friends took out a booklet in his memory (“always a pilot”), and in Kislev 5726 the name of the club was called in the Command and Staff School, where he served as deputy commander. In the year 5727, a file (“Lahav Shacha”) was published by Yedidim, listing him and his memory, on the 3rd of Adar 5767 (March 15, 1967), the birthday of Yisrael Meir, , By members of his family and those who cherish his memory, a grove of 2,500 trees in the pilot forest of the Jewish National Fund in Modi’in.