Rantowitz, Ze’ev

Son of Batsheva and Avraham, was born on June 25, 1929 in the city of Kishinev, in Serbia, which was then part of Romania. In 1935, at the age of 6, he immigrated to Israel with his family. After graduating from elementary school, he studied at the “New High School” in Tel Aviv and was educated at the Hashomer Hatzair branch in Tel Aviv in preparation for kibbutz life. In high school there was a clear inclination to humane studies, especially history. He liked to sail in an argument, and he never admitted that he would not catch his mind and catch his Lev. Afterward, he worked for the Electric Company in Tel Aviv and during his free time was a counselor in the Hashomer Hatzair branch. In April 1948, in the eighth grade of high school, he joined the Gadna, and in Negba he joined a Palmach regiment. Was a cheerful, stormy young man, sharp-minded, with an open heart to every idea of ​​truth. For a thought that he would have espoused, fought with zealous devotion, and thus did not know a compromise on the Yishuv’s struggle for independence. At a reception for the children of Teheran, he said: “In order for our people not to repeat the disaster of Europe, we must create a Hebrew state here, so that we can safely sit on our land among the nations of the world.” During the War of Independence he enlisted and served in the Negev Brigade. With the resumption of fighting at the end of the first truce, he participated with his unit in the attack on the Iraq-Suiden police. In this battle he was wounded, sent to the Ruhama military hospital and died three days later, on July 12, 1948. He was buried in Ruhama, and on May 16, 1950 he was transferred to the eternal rest in the military cemetery in Nahalat Yitzhak.