Melnick, Simcha

He was educated in a religious school in his hometown, and his father was murdered by a drunk Pole in 1939. In 1939, Simcha immigrated to Eretz Israel, but the rest of his family – his mother, sister, brother-in-law and their children all perished in the Holocaust of European Jewry. Simcha and his brother, who also immigrated to Israel, ran a shop selling pianos on Dizengoff Street and Simcha was known as a contributor to many national institutions and to charity. At the outbreak of the War of Independence he enlisted even before he was called to do so and served in the Carmeli Brigade, despite the protests of his relatives, saying: “I can not sit idly by while Jewish boys fight on the front lines.” He participated in the conquest of Haifa and the battles in Jenin. On his last leave he married. Eight days after his marriage, on the 11th of Cheshvan 5708 (13.11.1948), while driving in a car on the Rosh Pina-Metula road, the car encountered a landmine and Simcha was mortally wounded and died of his wounds in the military hospital. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Rosh Pina.