Oren (Sosnowick), Menachem

Son of Golda and Yaakov, was born on October 15, 1913, in the city of Pohost, Poland. As a youngster, he studied in a yeshiva and only in his youth did he reach Vilna, where he was accepted to the teachers’ seminary, founded by Tarbut, and learned Torah from poverty and devotion. His purpose was to study and beat Torah, and hence his heartfelt attention to youth, his admiration for the Hebrew book, and his deep awareness of the purpose of the Hebrew book in the Diaspora. At the age of 23 he was invited to the city of Rovno, Poland, to serve as a teacher at the “Tarbut” school. He soon became prominent as a pedagogue and the institution he was blessed with: his students loved him and his teachers admired him. At the beginning of the Second World War, a textbook for his studies in the natural sciences was delivered to the Hebrew schools in Poland; However, because of the bombing of Warsaw, the book did not receive his certificate. Menachem was among the few Jews who made their way from Poland through the Soviet Union to Japan and from there through India to Eretz Israel, from his Lev’s desire. After arriving in Israel in 1941, he was a teacher at the Reali School in Haifa and was active among the Scouts. His interest in youth drew the attention of the youth department of the Zionist Organization, and two years later, in 1943, he moved to Jerusalem to work in this department. He invested tremendous energy in this work and engaged in it with great love. Menachem was responsible for the publications of the department, for organizing seminars for counselors of youth movements from Palestine and for other activities among youth. He was also charged with organizing the department’s central bookstore, from which tens of thousands of books were sent to all the Diaspora, especially to the centers of our distant brethren in the Diaspora who were deeply concerned. His devotion to the book of the Diaspora project knew no bounds: tens of thousands of Hebrew books passed by him – holy and secular books, reading and reference books, books for beginners and adults. At his initiative, the children of the schools, through the children’s magazines he founded, began to make their contribution, and there was no end to his happiness when the number of books reached twenty-five thousand. Menahem was one of the initiators of the courses for instructors who were led by the department and the youth home founded by P. Rotenberg for the exiles of Cyprus – and here too he devoted himself tirelessly and with a whole Lev, and his extensive role in the department demanded all of him and he did not spare his strength and energy And he accepted everything with joy because he had one goal in mind: to serve the youth, many of whom acted with his soulful devotion to the idea, with the dedication to nurture it and persevering in its implementation – In his work on behalf of the youth, he saw himself as an emissary who was not permitted to refrain from his mission On December 26, 1947), on his return from Jerusalem in a convoy from Tel Aviv, he was hit by enemy bullets and a few hours later he was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery on Mount Hermon, The name was engraved on the monument erected in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in memory of those who perished in the Jewish Quarter and the memory of fighters who fell in the battle for Jerusalem and were brought for burial on the Mount of Olives.