Toledo, Siman-Tov

Siman-Tov, son of Visa and Nissim Toledo was born on March 25, 1918, in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. After graduating from high school, he served for several years in the Bulgarian army as an anti-aircraft gun commander. On February 13, 1936, he immigrated to Israel, settled in Holon. At the end of 1947 he was one of the first volunteers to join the campaign, and served in the Givati ​​Brigade. One day he and a group of four men entered an area held by the enemy and were suddenly attacked by a group of Arabs who began to fire at them. As his group began to retreat, Siman-Tov’s voice sounded: “Not backwards, boys, go ahead!” and they stormed the enemy. Siman-Tov was full of faith, energetic, guiding and calling for courage – that was his way of battle. Even during the training days, his soldierly talent stood out and he was sent to a sniper course and then spent days in a sniper position, killing the enemy. After completing his training, he was one of the guards of the Burma Road to Jerusalem.
On January 17, 1948, he participated in the explosion of a large house from which they had sniped on in Bat Yam and paralyzed the movement. Siman-Tov participated in the squad of saboteurs who broke into the house and placed the explosive in it. On March 22, 1948, he participated in a punitive operation in Jabalya. He crawled to a post, under a shower of enemy bullets, and managed to throw two grenades through the ashes and kill four enemy men who were in it. Siman-Tov was modest and when he returned from action, he would not tell much about his activities.
At the end of April 1948, during Operation Chametz, he went with his battalion to take action against the village of Tel Arish. The village was conquered on 19th of Nissan, April 28, 1948, without casualties, but at dawn the enemy launched a counter-attack and forced our fighters to withdraw with heavy losses. In the short battle with the enemy, Siman-Tov took up his position behind a stack of blocks and watched the enemy snipe at him, and when he raised his head, a bullet hit him. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery at Nahalat Yitzhak.