Schweitzer, Isaac (Jo, Imi)
Son of Reizel and Yehoshua, was born on 25.6.1924 in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. He taught traditional education, learned to love Judaism and cherish its values. He studied for three years in Yeshiva and then went to the remote town of Ungvar, which was then a center of Hebrew culture and studied there at the Hebrew Gymnasium, where he continued his secular studies, but did not neglect his studies. He excelled in a strong desire, in perseverance, in composure, and in the sharpness of his intellect, and these qualities placed him in the center of his classmates. After completing the Gymnasium he began to study craftsmanship, until the war and the Nazi occupation came and Yitzhak went through the life of the labor camps and the ghetto and devoted himself to assisting the Jewish refugees who had been brought there from Nazi-occupied countries. After daring attempts, he managed to escape from the ghetto with his brother and found shelter in the Swiss legation in Budapest. After the liberation, in 1945, he joined the religious youth movement “Bnei Akiva” and moved to Romania, where he was one of the centers of training and preparation for immigration. At the end of 1945 he immigrated to Israel and worked for a year in Moshav Sde Ya’akov in the various branches of agriculture and then went to study history and economics at the university. For days on end he would sit in the library on Mount Scopus or go to work to earn a living in order to continue his studies. Morillo and his friends soon recognized his talents and pinned his hopes on him. With the outbreak of the War of Independence, he was among the students who left for Gush Etzion. Already in the first attack on the bloc he excelled in fulfilling his duties and was among those who arrested hundreds of storming Arabs. During the rest hours he would sit in the cultural hall of Kibbutz Massuot Yitzhak and participate in Torah classes. On the day the group returned to Jerusalem, Yitzhak met with his brother, who also went to the Gush. On the way his convoy encountered an enemy ambush near Nebi-Daniel, and he was lightly wounded. Upon his return to Jerusalem he went to service in the Galilee and after hearing about his parents’ upcoming arrival in Israel, he was given leave to help them with their initial arrangements in Israel. But his Lev did not allow him to extend his vacation in Tel Aviv and he joined the Givati brigade as a fighter and fought in the various battles in the south and recently in the “Yoav” operation for the breakthrough to the Negev. On October 19, 1948, in an attack on the Hulikat outposts, he was wounded by shrapnel from a grenade that hit his Lev. He was laid to rest at the Warburg military cemetery.