Levinson, Zev

Son of Ita and Joseph. He was born in 1913 in the city of Shabli, Lithuania and immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1931. Upon his arrival in Eretz Israel he joined the ranks of the Haganah. Ze’ev was accepted to the Technion in Haifa, completed successfully and was awarded the title of Engineer. He settled in Tel Aviv, married and established in Holon the Muchsaf” silver tableware factory. Ze’ev was active in the Haganah. He inspected the training camps at Mikve Israel and at the Meir Shfeya youth village, and in his factory he secretly supplied granades for the Haganah. When he learned to fly and bought a private jet, he used his plane for intelligence flights for the Haganah intelligence service, and brought information about various targets that could not be reached in any other way, and also transported weapons and ammunition to isolated settlements in the Negev. 1947-1947, Ze’ev engaged in various procurement activities in Israel and abroad for the Hagana and negotiated with the British the purchase of Oster planes from the British army surplus. These planes were the beginning of the Israeli air force. On 16 Kislev, November 29, 1947, the day the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution on the establishment of the State of Israel, Ze’ev was killed in the crash of his plane while on a reconnaissance flight for the Haganah, when his plane hit the ground while flying low in the fields. He was brought to eternal rest in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery, leaving a wife and three sons, three brothers and a sister. His fall is described in the book “The Roots of the IAF”.