Leuchter, Reuven

Son of-Sarah and Ephraim Gutel was born on August 7, 1905, in the town of Bochnia, Galicia, Poland, and immigrated to Eretz Israel as a pioneer in 1926. Reuven joined the Kibbutz Herzlia in Haifa at the time, To settle with his friends in Kibbutz Merhavia, his loyalty to the kibbutz way of life knew no bounds: he had uncompromising demands from his friends and especially from himself, and thus earned him a great deal of esteem among his fellow travelers. The second was to enlist in the Jewish Brigade – Reuven was among those who responded to the order People whom the Holy One, blessed be He, stitches them, there are those who destroy them. Reuven belongs to those who were cut. “During his service in the Jewish Brigade, he did much for his fellow Holocaust survivors, as well as for his comrades in the unit. After his discharge from the British army he returned to his kibbutz. During the War of Independence, on the 16th of Iyar 5708 (16.5.1948), while he was digging defensive trenches in his kibbutz, he was informed of mines placed alongside the Afula-Jenin road to prevent the infiltration of Arab forces into Afula. His comrades, who harvested from the mines and then boarded a mine, were brought to eternal rest in the Merhavia cemetery at the foot of Givat Hamoreh.