Steinberg, Mordechai (Motek)

Mordechai (Motek), was born in the old age of his parents, Sarah and Dov Steinberg, in 1924 in Piotrkow, Poland. His father died when he was a baby and his four sisters were brought to an orphanage because of the difficult financial situation of the mother. In 1946, Mordechai came to Israel. At first he worked in Tel Aviv and later in Tirat Zvi. From Tirat Zvi he moved to Degania and a year later he married. On February 15, 1948, during the War of Independence, he enlisted in the Haganah Brigade, served in the Golani Brigade and fought in various places in the Galilee, and in the last two weeks of his life he was stationed in the Jordan Valley. On May 18, the Syrians launched an attack on a plantation with the help of artillery and tanks, and our forces did not withstand the intensity of the Syrian attack. At first, the town of Tzemach fell, and finally the police station, and the defenders retreated under Syrian fire towards Degania. Mordechai fell on the 9th of Iyar 5708 (May 18, 1948). He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Degania Aleph.