Moshe Surmani

Son of Sarah and Jacob, was born in 1931 on the Greek island of Rhodes (then under Italian occupation). He attended elementary school in Italian and Greek. During the Second World War, when the Germans took control of the island of Rhodes, he succeeded in escaping by boat and after wandering and shaking through Italy and Turkey and managed to reach the country in February 1944 on a Greek military ship as a non-Jewish soldier. In Eretz Israel he was accepted to the Youth Aliyah and was sent to education and agricultural training at the Yakir religious institution in Kfar HaRoeh, where he did not know a Hebrew letter, but with great enthusiasm, affection and dedication to Judaism, he quickly learned the language, Diligently and sparing his pennies to purchase holy books. Moshe loved the agricultural work very much, and every job he worked on was a correct one. In January 1948, at the beginning of the War of Independence, he enlisted in the Palmach and was sent to reinforcements in Kfar Etzion in the month of Shevat 5708. On the last day of the Haganah’s defense, Moshe fell on the last day of the Haganah’s defense, on the 13th of Iyar 5708 (17.5.1949) Herzl in Jerusalem.