Mimran, Shimon

Son of Masuda and Yaakov. Was born in 1894 in Jaffa, the sixth generation in Israel for a family of Sephardi origin. At a young age Shimon went to work to help the family’s agriculture, specializing in various stone works such as quarrying and cutting. Shimon was drafted into the Turkish army during the First World War and sent to the Egyptian border. There he learned that in the British Army a Jewish unit had been set up to liberate Palestine from the Turkish yoke. Shimon decided to defect. He crossed the Suez Canal, arrived in Alexandria and volunteered for the Mule Corps. He was later joined to one of the Jewish battalions, fought in Gaza and took part in the liberation of Jerusalem as a soldier in General Allenby’s army. At the end of the war he was released from the British army, married and settled in the Old City of Jerusalem. His public activity was extensive. He was a member of the Sephardic Committee in Jerusalem, of the construction workers’ organization, was involved in preparing Jews for stone work, and took part in organizing the defense of the Jews in the Jewish Quarter in 1929. He also engaged in peacemaking between conflicted couples and was highly respected by dozens of his acquaintances and admirers. At the outbreak of the bloody riots of 1936-1939, Shimon volunteered for a special unit of guards that was entrusted with the defense of the Haifa port and the refineries. Shimon returned to his home and continued with the work of the building. On 16 Av (12.8.1946) Shimon died of blood poisoning and was brought to eternal rest in a cemetery in Jerusalem and left a wife (his second one who raised his children), two sons and three daughters.