Shapira, Baruch-Asher

Baruch-Asher, son of Pesia and Eliezer Shapira, was born in 1923 in Kamin-Kushirski, Volhyn, Poland. In September 1925, when his parents immigrated to Israel. He was arrested by the British police and sentenced to house arrest for one year on charges of affixing leaflets against the White Paper. At the outbreak of World War II he enlisted in the British Air Force and served as an aerial machine gunner in Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, Crete and Italy. He received four medals. With the outbreak of the War of Independence, he took on various positions in the infantry units of the “Kiryati” Brigade and took part in the defense of Tel Aviv and the road to Jerusalem. Baruch-Asher was hit in the stomach and he was taken to the hospital. Before he died he managed to write a letter to his brother, who was in America at the time, demanding that he return to Israel. Baruch Asher passed away on the 23rd of Adar (April 3, 1948) and was brought to eternal rest in the Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery. A Torah library in the Army Rabbinate was donated in his memory.