Vilnai (Zibenberg), David

Son of Moshe. He was born in 1907 in the town of Rishkhan, in Serbia, to God-fearing parents, agricultural workers. He studied at the “Hadar” and at the age of seven he entered the Hebrew school “Tarbut.” In his youth he organized a youth association called “The Guardians of the Language and the Land” and was one of the leaders of the Zionist Youth Gathering and fought passionately against young anti-Zionist youth. After completing his studies at the Gymnasium he went on to study in Vilna and spent his days studying in the spirit of the Land of Israel and the Hebrew culture. In 1927 he immigrated to Eretz Israel. He was also active in the public sector, in the “Socialist Youth” and in the physical training of children in the playgrounds of “Young Hadassah.” In the days of the 1929 riots he came to the defense of the neighborhood “Bayit Vegan”. In one of the attacks, a bullet hit his stomach and he stayed alive for three days, in severe agony, at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. He died of his wound on 20 Av, August 26, 1929, and was buried in Jerusalem. He left a family in Bessarabia and his memory was immortalized in the books of Yizkor for the Martyrs of Av 91949 and for War and Peace in the Land of Israel.