Ornstein, Ephraim (“Efra”, “Orshi”)
He was born on December 26, 1913 in Vienna. In 1930 he graduated from high school. He continued his studies in the natural sciences and after receiving his matriculation certificate, continued his studies at the Viennese Technion and completed his studies in the autumn of 1937. During his studies he was active among the Zionist youth and while in high school he was one of the founders of the Zionist High School Union (VZM) BILU “, thanks to his experience in the organization, information and cultural activities, was a member of the first leadership of the New Histadrut, and at the beginning of 1935 the BILU Alliance decided to join the world movement NIZ, Hashomer Hatzair and Hakibbutz Hameuhad. Ephraim devoted himself to education and training and was responsible for organizing and holding the summer settlements. In March 1938, Austria was annexed to the Third Reich and due to the expected outcome of Austrian Jewry, the movement enlisted all its strength in the service of the Hehalutz and the Youth Aliyah, in an effort to train as many young people as possible to immigrate to Palestine. In April 1939 Ephraim arrived in Palestine via England, where he stayed for two months. He devoted his first days in Israel to a comprehensive tour of all the places that immigrants absorbed from his movement. He then joined Kibbutz Ein Gev, where he hangs furrows for irrigation, loads straw onto the cart and leads to garbage and garbage carts. On the 16 th of September, 1939, at 6:00 AM, a group of friends from Ein-Gav set out to measure the land of the spot. In the field, behind bushes and rocks, a group of Arab gangs opened fire in the group. Ephraim and his friend Josef Rotfeld, his friend in the movement’s action in Vienna, were killed on the spot. They were brought for burial at Kibbutz Ein Gev. In a pamphlet issued in memory of the two friends, one of Ephraim’s disciples wrote: “… perfection is the virtue of man, and this perfection of Orshi brought her, for example, as a model for an educating personality.” Another member of Kibbutz Ein Gev wrote: “Ephraim and Joseph saw you recently in the field of work, when you came out on that bitter morning, you hit a ball of murderers … I saw you measuring the desolate fields … You walk along the dry cliffs, You set them up, signaled a sign of a new life for Ptolemy, in which water will flow happily to quench the desolation and produce it for us and for the generations that follow us. “
