Vilenchuk, Pnina

Daughter of Irta and Chaim Dov Steinhardt. Born in 1897 in the city of Orsha (White Russia). Pnina left her hometown for Leningrad, where she met Yitzhak Vilenchuk, who was active in the Zionist movement among Jewish students in Leningrad, and also became active in the Zionist movement. The couple married in 1921. In 1926, Yitzhak was sent to a prison in Siberia as a Zionist activist, and Pnina succeeded in escaping with forged papers from Siberia and Russia, and she emigrated to Eretz Israel in 1926. In 1930, they settled in Jerusalem, and Pnina, who had already had two small children, began public action in Mahal, The Association of Working Mothers, etc. In 1942, she moved to Tel Aviv and volunteered for work on the Committee for the Soldier and organized the activities for the soldier, collecting books, and together with other volunteers, organized clubs for the soldiers, demanding much from herself and those around her. She made sure that the club was not just a dining room, and that the soldier’s dress should not be just a package, but rather prepared and packed with taste and love, and that was not enough for a person to do during times of war, she argued, and planned to enlist. She herself was a member of the British ATS. Despite the advice of her husband and friends that at her age she would not be able to cope with military life, Pnina joined the ranks of A.T.S. at the age of 45. On her volunteer service to the army, Pnina saw full self-realization. She lovingly and willingly did the work of the female soldier, adapted herself to the life of the camp, took care of her fellow soldiers, all of them younger than she, the concern of a senior nurse, and they gave her back love. After basic training, Pnina was sent to Sidon, Lebanon. When she came to Israel on short vacations, she said, “I have a large field for action among the female soldiers. Pnina was injured in a car accident while performing her duties near the camp in Sidon where she served, and died of her wounds on 17 Elul, 17.9.1943 and was laid to rest in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery. The funeral was attended by a large audience from all walks of life in Israel, representatives of organizations and institutions, soldiers and civilians. She was survived by a husband, the engineer Yitzhak Vilenchuk, one of Israel’s senior engineers, the president of the Association of Engineers and Architects, a member of the Haganah command and the Civil Guard, and two sons. The local press eulogized Pnina and published many lists in her memory.