Ralph, John
Son of Shulamit and Shlomo, was born on May 16, 1931 in the city of Saarbriken, Germany to an enlightened family with a Zionist tradition, the descendents of Rabbi Yitzchak Ralf Mammel, author of the book “Longit Daughter of Ami”. In 1934, at the age of 3, his parents immigrated to Israel. First they sat in Jerusalem and Mikvah Yisrael and finally settled in Nahariya. Where his father was the principal of a school. Yohanan attended elementary school and went to study in the Gymnasium, but in ninth grade he decided to leave the classroom and devote himself to studying the electricity profession in Haifa, despite his parents’ insistence on continuing his studies. He dreamed of being an electrician on the deck of a Hebrew ship, because he loved the sea and the sport. He composed many songs about the sea, which he played at different parties. From the age of 16 he was a member of the Haganah. On January 1, 1948, when the illegal immigrant ship “United Nations” arrived at the shores of Nahariya, participated in the landing. During the War of Independence he served in the Carmeli Brigade. During the siege of the Western Galilee, there were those who crossed the sea, including food and arms ships on the shores of Nahariya, which served as the only port to the Western Galilee, on which the Arab road was cut off by the Arabs. After the liberation of the Western Galilee, the fighting continued against the forces of Kaukji, and during a night patrol on the 9th of Av 5708 (August 9, 1948), he fell in a coma with a stray bullet and was brought to rest in the military cemetery in Nahariya.
