Puchter, Zvi (Grisha)

Son of Hanna and Zechariah, was born on 25.5.1888 in the village of Kovalcov, the Kremenchug district of Ukraine, to a devout family. His father owned a flour mill and an oil press to stop oil. He studied in the “cheder” and when he was 11 he moved to a Russian elementary school. Zvi tended to study history and exercise. At the same time, he loved the prayers and customs and the day of his Bar Mitzvah left a strong impression on him. Even as a child, he had excelled in courage and great energy. Was stormy and stormy and his name came out all around him as a soldier. When an emissary came from Palestine, he was interested first to know whether there were Jewish soldiers or policemen in the country. The emissary replied that for the time being there was no one, but that when he grew up, he would have an army. Things went into his Lev and he asked his parents to let him go to Israel, but they thought he had to learn some profession first. When he was 16, he went to Kremenchug, studied in a vocational school, and devoted himself mainly to metalwork and mechanics. He adapted to the life of the city and its new surroundings, but did not move away from tradition, put on tefillin and prayed in the synagogue. When the riots of 1905 and disturbances against the Jews began, he trained in weapons and prepared homemade protective implements. When the rioters entered his father’s shop, one of them hit and scattered the rest. When his time came, he volunteered for service in the Russian army. His mother pleaded with him not to go or ask for delay, and he answered: “In Eretz Israel, too, we ask others to protect and protect us.” On 1 November 1910 he was sent to the city of Tiflis in the Caucasus and was attached to the 16th Battalion of the Grenadiers. “I had great respect as a Jew to serve in this battalion,” he wrote years later in his memoirs. In his opinion, the Jews needed the army more than anything else, and therefore he learned all the details of the war tactics. He knew the name of every regiment throughout Russia and its hallmarks, and did not forgive those who had made a mistake. As he lay in the trenches, he imagined Jewish armies on their flag and arms, and he was among the commanders. He had a warm Jewish Lev. In one of the battles in the First World War, he injured a Hungarian cavalry and wounded him and was also injured. The Hungarian began to read “Shema” and when it became clear that they were both Jews, the enemies embraced and asked each other for forgiveness. Pocchter took him to his house and covered him all the way through the war. He was twice wounded twice, twice awarded the George Cross for his courage and reached the rank of first officer. When he returned from the war in 1919, he found gangs of murderers in his town who were sending Jews. He ordered self-defense in Kremenchug and trained and trained young Jewish weapons. That saved many Jews from death. Seeing the attitude toward the Jews even after serving in the army left his beloved Russia and immigrated to Palestine in 1924. Here he worked at the Shemen factory in Haifa. The work, which she knew from his father’s house, made him very Simcha. In the first few days he would return from the factory and sing in his mouth. And from time to time he bent to the ground and kissed Ofra. His family abroad wrote letters filled with admiration for the beauty of the country and asked his wife to come up soon. From his savings, he built a barrack in the suburbs of Haifa and was one of the first settlers in Tel Amal, near Halisa. After his return from work, he would eat quickly and begin to work on setting up the hut until dark. In 1929 he built a Beit Biton. A short time later, the riots broke out in 1929. Tel Amal was the extreme Hebrew point in the eastern part of Haifa and only a dozen families lived in the neighborhood, without roads or water. The Arab rioters approached his house and he went out on to the porch, waving a gun from Russia and calling out, “You will not force me to leave my house. I am not afraid of you.” When the events worsened and the women and children were to be evacuated from the neighborhood, To the old power station, where there was a telephone andCall for help. Armed Arabs were ambushed on all sides, but Pochetter was sure he would arrive. “They did not catch me in Russia either,” he said. “They will not dare touch me.” With the gun in his hand he ran and shouted to the Arabs that the battle to him was a death. He reached the station and called the army. The workers asked him to stay but he refused. On the way back an Arab gang chased him and he shot them. Since then he took over the initiative to save the place and until his last day was commander of the Haganah in the neighborhood. He did not rest, did not rest, and devoted himself to security. In times of riots and in times of quiet, at work and in society, did not stop warning about the danger posed to Tel Amal and the expected separation of Haifa if the neighborhood will not receive help and will not survive. He saw Tel Amal standing guard over the transport of the Jewish community in Haifa. He made contact with the authorities and his house became a committee for policemen and officers. In the end he was appointed as the mukhtar of Amal. Everything in the neighborhood passed under his control. His dreams began to come true – in miniature. Not an army commander, but at least the representative of the government. He wore a uniform, a pistol. He was always upright, neat and neat (he also showed up in uniform and full ammunition). He was always willing to help others – to arrange at work, to give charity, which was usually not returned to him, to worry and to encourage. He was very cheerful, and his house was open to everyone – Jewish, English and Arab. During the day, he worked in the Shemen factory, and in the evenings and nights, sometimes after midnight, he walked the length and breadth of the neighborhood and went out to watch the guard with a pistol or a shotgun and climbed rocks to see if there was any suspicious movement. When the neighborhood was in danger, he did not go to work and remained in the neighborhood to supervise the guards. His whole life was devoted to creating a Jewish military image that would bring independence. At the outbreak of the 1936 riots, he opened his house to the defenders and every time reinforcements arrived, he would feed and drink the people: “We will suffice with bread only,” he said. “But for those who left their home and came to protect us, everything should be given and made as pleasant as possible. A loudspeaker to hear the news at the post, Zvi moved from house to house, gathered the residents to the synagogue, opened the Holy Ark and declared: “I swear all the men here will be on guard to protect the neighborhood and the community. The commander of the Haifa police, Barker, who left the country upon the departure of the British, said goodbye to everything from the simple policeman to the officers. With a kiss and sent a memento to “Le Pochetre, the beloved and loyal mukhtar.” He also tried to live in peace with the Arabs, and his name and courage were celebrated with glory and in normal times the Arabs treated him with friendship. The well-known people of Halisa-Wadi Rushmia, and several times tried to assassinate him. Recently he was exhausted, but he continued to wear his uniform and did not let go of his military dream. He would stretch out, scanning his beard to the left and right, and say: “The emperor’s army, it was an army, officers of the corps … A Russian ploddable had a shape, and here an English general looked like the sun of the synagogue … In all its splendor. ” When the War of Independence broke out, his comrades told him that he had served well enough and that he should be careful and take off his uniform. He did not want to hear. “These days I will be a civilian, a civilian, not like that!” He saw himself as a soldier whose job it was to guard the way to Hadar Hacarmel, and despite his age he set himself up to serve the homeland in body and soul. Every day he stood on the road, standing upright and the bullets whistling around him. His behavior encouraged the residents. When the journey through the bridge on Wadi Rushmiya became very dangerous, he set out for the road affair and diverted traffic to Neve Sha’anan. heStood open to the enemy and a bundle of bullets shot at him. His pistol was shattered and he was hit in the stomach and fell into the ditch. According to him, an armored vehicle of the British police was nearby, and he did not help him. The friends who had come to his aid shouted not to approach the place of danger. Zvi arrived at the clinic and was sent to a hospital. The newspapers announced that he had been killed and among the Arabs the joy was great. In the hospital, too, he maintained his good mood. He did not doubt victory. “I wish I could see the first steps of the Hebrew state,” he would repeat. His wish was to defeat the murderers of Halisa and to be crowned with both labor and halisa. A few weeks later, when he recovered from his wounds, he returned to his post. To Arabs it was a legend. One day he came to his daughter’s home in Hadar Hacarmel to be a little distance from the constant tension. The situation in the neighborhood was extremely serious, and he, although not fully recovered, wanted to return to Tel Amal. The daughter could not stop him. “I’m there and all your treatment will not help my recovery.” He explained to her. “I have to go back to the neighborhood even if I can not help much.” He dressed, filled with joy, and boarded the car going to “oil.” When the car arrived near his car, one shot was fired at the car and the bullet pierced his skull on the 15th of Adar I 5708 (February 15, 1948.) He was brought to eternal rest in the military cemetery in Haifa and did not get to see Halisa released, In the State of Israel he left a wife, Henya, and his daughters, and his memory was placed on the pages of the booklet “Our fallen comrades”, published by Shemen and Ovadia, Adar 5709.