Rafaeli (Fadida), Rafael

Son of Yitzhak and Farcha. He was born in the month of Elul in September 1938 in Meknes, Morocco, when Raphael was soft when he died from his father, and after that his family, Raphael’s mother and three sisters, immigrated to Israel with him at the age of 8. He was engaged in weaving carpets to help the family, Because his second husband did not get drunk enough, he was stern and religious, and when he refused to let the children at home he told them to transfer them to the institution, and she refused to give up her children. Because he was sensitive by nature, he could not see his mother kneeling under the agony, and from time to time he would slip out of school and go to work, When Rafael was fourteen years old, he was lucky and he was also killed by his mother (she was seriously injured and died in the hospital when she returned in a parachuting military truck to which she was invited by the friend of the senior Rafael sister). Raphael, now fourteen, felt that he was the man in the family, and that he was concerned about the family, and Rafael himself went to one of the kibbutzim and one day turned over with the tractor he was driving. Where he studied in his smallness, maintained friendships with him until his last day, and he managed to arrange his admission to the Michmoret Maritime School, where he studied for two years in a two-year course in mechanics, and later worked in garages and various workshops until his enlistment in February 1957. After Basic training went to the Navy, passed the officers ‘examinations over time – but instead of going to officers’ course he changed his mind and volunteered To-sea, in order to “see the world;” Thus he arrived at the destroyer “Jaffa”. In 1958, he sailed to Jaffa, and after a year volunteered for submarines and traveled to England for about ten months. Throughout his service he continued to study various subjects on his own and took the appropriate examinations. After returning from England, he moved to the navy’s naval training base and guided a course for divers. Here he was promoted to the first sergeant. During this period he met his future wife, who was a clerk on the same basis. Two years after the marriage, Raphael decided to be released from the army; he was angry that he had not been allowed to attend an officer’s course. He was offered positions that were tempting as partners in small enterprises. But he did not like these roles, and one day he expressed his desire to return to the army – and although his wife objected, he insisted. Shortly thereafter, he was offered a trip to England. He accepted the suggestion that he saw it as a step forward and a place for promotion. In May 1965 he accompanied his wife to Portsmouth. They lived there. For the next ten months he lived in a city in northern England, where he worked and studied the repair work of machines designed for the Dakar. Then they returned to Portsmouth. His wife was forced to return to Israel because of her mother’s illness, but after the mother’s death she returned to her husband with her young son (born in 1964). Shortly before the date of the Dakar cruise, she was expected to have a second birth; They decided then that it would be better for her to give birth in a country rather than a foreign country. This was her last departure from her husband in October 1967. Raphael remained alone and his longing was intense; In addition, he was concerned about his wife and the consequences of the birth. His work at Dakar was very dedicated. He was in charge of the submersibles, the air-conditioning and oxygen installations. One day the submarine “Dakar” sailed to the port and when it was on the sea route between Gibraltar and Haifa, the connection with it was severed and again was not renewed; This was on the 24th of Tevet 5728 (25.1.1968). The Chief Military Rabbinate determined that the date of Raphael’s death, in the course of carrying out his duties together with the rest, was the 30th of Tevet 5728 (30.1.1968). He left a wife and two children. Because Raphael did notA memorial monument was erected in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem with the missing members of the team. The commander of the navy wrote in a letter of condolences to his wife and children and noted that “one of the scouts of ‘Diker’ was lost in the depths of the sea.” He wrote that he was “an excellent mechanic, a dedicated diver with Lev and soul and loved by his commanders and subordinates alike.” Several pages – and his picture of them – were dedicated to Rafael in Eran Shorer’s book “Six Days in Decker.” On the 28th of June 1999, after years of searching, the INS Dakar submarine was found on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, at a depth of 2,900 meters on its planned sailing route and 250 miles from the port of Haifa. A space whose burial place is unknown.