Siegelman, Arieh-Yehuda

Son of Tova and Avraham-Shlomo, was born on the night of Hoshana Rabba on October 25, 1929 in Berlin, the capital of Germany. In March 1936 he immigrated to Israel with his parents, who settled in Kfar Hasidim. Shortly after their arrival in Israel, the riots of 1936-1939 broke out. He attended school in the village and was active in the Bnei Akiva movement and the religious sports association Elitzur. Due to his talents in sports and leadership, he was sent to a course for instructors and later served as a guide. Aryeh-Yehuda continued to study at the “Yavneh” school in Haifa, and later worked in engraving. At the age of Bar Mitzvah he joined the Haganah, completed a course for battalion commanders and his apprentices and his friends liked him and respected him for his good qualities and devotion and holy attitude to his tasks and duties. At the beginning of the War of Independence, he enlisted in active duty and took part in various combat operations and escorting convoys, including the large convoy that arrived on Jerusalem’s “Big Saturday”. He remained in defense of the Holy City, completed a course for heavy weapons and mortars, and served as a battalion commander in the Beit Horon Battalion, where he developed an excellent sense of hearing and was able to discern every sound and noise and define them precisely. “We swore to live, to live, not to retreat.” According to the voices that caught his ears in the dusk of the mountains, he sensed in time that the enemy would launch a major attack on his position in Radar and prepared He fought valiantly against Arab forces, which were far superior to the number and equipment, and in the midst of the battle When the grenades failed to stop the enemy, he ordered a brief retreat, and he remained the last to cover, and again ordered to dig up and prepare for renewed resistance, to hold out until the reinforcements came in. But the enemy’s superiority increased and he fell on the 17th of Iyar 5708 (May 26, 1948.) His body remained in the enemy’s territory, and about a year and a half later, on the 17th of Tishrei 5771 (17.11.1949), he was laid to rest at home – The military cemetery at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.