Zaken, Samson

Shimshon, son of Geula and Shabtai, was born in 1947 in Baghdad, Iraq, and immigrated to Israel in 1951 with his family, who settled in the village of Maoz Zion in the Jerusalem corridor. He acquired his basic education at the Ariel School in Maoz Zion and completed his high school studies at the Mizrachi Teachers’ Seminary in Jerusalem. As a teenager, Shimshon was a member of the soccer team of the local Hapoel branch and participated in the Gadna training, and even after he grew up and worked for the IBA he continued to play and was a member of the Mossad’s soccer team and admired the nation’s greats – especially son of-Gurion and Moshe Dayan – He began to work as a librarian on the records of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and thus fulfilled some of his great love for music: “Samson referred to the records as sacred , He would clean them and place them carefully as if a baby were in his hand. He knew the big disk on all its shelves and its rooms, and when someone needed a record, he did not need a catalog – he could ask Samson. “Shimshon was drafted into the IDF in early February 1966 and assigned to the Armored Corps. Shortly before the outbreak of the war, he joined an officer’s course, which the war interrupted him in the middle, and after that he did not return to the course, and his friends in the unit used to call him Sammy, or sometimes even Shimi. When he was released from regular service, he returned to his work at the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and expanded his activities with its records and the workers’ sports association, during which time he also studied at the “Clal” school, where he prepared for the matriculation exams. Shimshon fought as a NCO on the southern front, and on the 15th of Tishrei, 5740 (October 15, 1973), his unit was on its way to Jerusalem And the “Budapest” army, which suddenly encountered Egyptian commando forces and in the battle against the enemy, Shimshon was brought to eternal rest in the Mount Herzl cemetery, leaving behind his father, mother, three brothers and two sisters. To the bereaved family, his commander wrote: “With courage, courage and devotion, Shimshon and his comrades wiped out the enemy and broke the way into an IDF fortified outpost.” Shimshon was a devoted fighter and a model commander, .