Refaeli, Moshe-Shlomo

Son of Esther-Ita and Eliezer-Meir, was born on 29.11.1928 in Tel Aviv to an ultra-Orthodox family that preserves tradition. When he was four years old, he entered kindergarten, and at the age of six he began studying in the Talmud Torah of the “Ha-Histadrut ha-Haredim” and completed his studies there. Afterward he continued to study for two years in the yeshiva of Rabbi Amiel “the new yishuv” and continued to study at a Yeshiva in Petah Tikva. When he was 18, he left the yeshiva and began helping his father with his work, the luggage and leather industry. However, he did not abandon his studies and during his spare time studied and learned. He was a member of the religious sports organization Elitzur. At the outbreak of the War of Independence, he joined the Palmach’s religious unit and was sent to Gush Etzion and took part in the defense of the bloc, at one of Kfar Etzion’s positions and with the rest of the village’s inhabitants, who perished in the last battle on Wednesday, 13.5.1948. Two months after his fall, his older brother, Samuel-David, fell near Mukibla. At the same time, the parents were still comforted by false rumors that Moshe-Shlomo had survived. On the 17th of Cheshvan 5710 (17.11.1949) he was transferred to eternal rest, together with the rest of the victims of the Gush, at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.