Levi-Tam, Zechariah

Zechariah, son of Rachel and Joseph Levi-Tam, was born in 1921 in Jerusalem, and attended elementary school. He was a member of the Haganah and worked as a driver. During the Second World War he accepted the order of the national institutions, enlisted in the British army and served in Egypt and Italy. Upon his release, he returned to Israel and enlisted in the Hebrew settlement police. With the outbreak of the War of Independence he immediately joined the Haganah and accompanied the convoys. On the morning of April 13, 1948, a convoy headed to Mount Scopus after the British promised the road was open and safe. Hundreds of Arabs fired heavy gunfire at it. Some of the vehicles managed to get out and return, but in the afternoon the Arabs set fire to two buses and their passengers. Only late in the evening did the British intervene and rescue the survivors from the trapped vehicles. Zechariah was among the fallen on 13 April 1948. He was brought to rest in the Sanhedria cemetery in Jerusalem.