Weiss, Yehuda

Yehuda, son of Rachel and Levi Weiss, was born in 1918 in Maatski, Czechoslovakia. The family had nine children and a few years after Yehuda’s birth, the father went to America, hoping that he could send money to the family. The mother was forced to work hard to bring fruit and vegetables for sale in the nearby town. The older children helped her with devotion and understanding. Most of the family was exterminated by the Nazis, and only three brothers remained in three parts of the world at the end of the war. Yehuda was in Europe, but he was a member of a Zionist youth movement from his childhood and decided to immigrate to Palestine, giving up his desire to meet with his surviving brothers. Yehuda arrived in Israel on the illegal immigration route. In Israel, he joined the Shvulat group and soon became known as one of the best workers in the orchards, in the carpentry shop, the bakery, and the barbershop. He married a wife and hoped to secure a better future for his children than he had in his childhood, an “orphan” of a father who lived so distant. When the War of Independence began, he volunteered for service in the Golani Brigade, his first role was in supplying food to fighters in battle and after many entreaties he received weapons and was attached to a combat company. On May 18, the Syrians launched an attack on Tzemach with the help of artillery and tanks, and our forces did not withstand the intensity of the Syrian attack. Tzemach fell and the defenders retreated under fire. Yehuda fought to his last breath and fell on the ninth of Iyar (18.05.1948). He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Degania Aleph.