Weksler, Arieh-Yehezkel
Son of Ada and Avraham, was born on the first day of Sukkoth, on the 24th of Tishrei 5727 (September 24, 1926) in Zichron Ya’akov, the third generation in the colony, grandson of one of its pioneers. He was one of the best students in the local school and excelled in math. Arie loved music from his childhood, started with a harmonica and continued with the accordion and other instruments. He liked to play for himself and when necessary he agreed to perform in front of an audience at youth parties and celebrations for charity and cultural projects, but on condition that the audience would not separate him from his inner musical pleasure. Later, he completed his ninth grade, and the son of the land connected with his parents’ farm went to study at the agricultural high school in Pardes Hannah. He was admitted to second grade and studied for two years, but because of the lack of knowledge in the first grade natural studies he did not study, he stopped his studies after two years and specialized in his father’s farm by singing and assembling a vines nursery. He returned to school and on a three-month extension he prepared and successfully passed the nature exam, and then continued to study and guide his friends at the viticulture plant he had established on his own initiative, until he graduated with honors and completed his father’s year of service. From his writings he seems to have a broad and in-depth understanding of various areas of Hebrew and general culture. He was active in the local wind orchestra, organized concerts by the “Maccabee” for a charity orchestra and helped to reorganize the colony orchestra after it broke up. In the meantime, he continued to study psychology and the sciences of agriculture and nature with the help of books and periodicals he had ordered from England and America. In the autumn of 1947, the High School of Agriculture in Montpellier, in southern France, accepted his request to be accepted as a student and was ready to go there to specialize mainly in the vine industry. He was an active member of the Haganah and underwent various courses and was also sent to a paramedics course, which was successfully completed. When he returned from the course, he guided the members of the PID, one of his soldiers and his instructors, when he decided that the decision to partition the country and feel the storm was postponing his trip to quieter times. He fulfilled his obligation to guard the settlement and its surroundings and always went with his company to military operations and to protect the Jewish settlements and roads. On behalf of the Haganah headquarters, he was ordered to organize and manage military clinics in Daughter of Shlomo and Zichron Yaakov. Make all the preparations with diligence and knowledge of the profession. On his discharge, he was seriously injured in a road accident on the border of Zichron Yaakov on December 12, 1947. He was brought back to the first aid station where he died. He was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery in Zichron Yaakov. His memory was placed in a memorial book called “Prior to His Time,” which his parents published on the anniversary of the fall. On the second anniversary of his fall, his parents founded a club named “Ohel Aryeh” in his memory, with an agricultural library in his name for the students of the agricultural school in Pardes Hannah. An agricultural library was also established in his name in the elementary school in Zichron Ya’akov.
