Merling, Eliyahu

Eliyahu, son of Rivka and Mendel Merling, was born on July 4, 1923 in Czernowitz, Romania and in 1946 immigrated to Israel on the illegal immigrant ship “Knesset Israel”. The ship was captured by the British and all its passengers were deported to Cyprus where he spent about ten months in Cyprus. Eliyahu joined the Irgun and took part in its activities against the British. On May 30, 1948, he participated in an attack by the Etzel unit on the Rosh HaAyin camp and the sources of the Yarkon River, where the camp was occupied by the Iraqis, but the enemy attacked and under this pressure the Irgun fighters retreated. Among the fighters who fell in this battle was Eliyahu. He left a wife, Pnina, and a one-year old son. On the 24th of Kislev, 5742 (24.11.1952), he was laid to rest in a grave in the military cemetery at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.