Remembering South Africans who died for Israel

ROBYN SASSEN

Yehezkiel “Chatzi” Berelowitz and Zvi Lipschitz were both Bnei Akiva supporters who fell in the last days of Kfar Etzion’s defence, on May 12 and 13, 1948, respectively.

Gideon Rosenberg, a member of Kibbutz Shoval, fell in battle in the Jerusalem Corridor while serving in the Palmach Harel Brigade on May 16, 1948.

Meir “Matey” Silber, fell while defending Kibbutz Ramat Rachel on May 25, 1948. Born in Eastern Europe in 1927, he had emigrated with his family to (then) South West Africa and then South Africa, as a young child. A Betar supporter with a yen for farming, “Matey” studied engineering at Wits and honoured his parents’ wishes by completing his degree before he volunteered to fight in Israel.

Eddie Cohen, a pilot from Squadron 1 and Squadron 101 in the Israel Air Force, had been a pilot in Italy during the Second World War. Born in South Africa, he made aliyah in 1947 and lived on Kibbutz Mayan Baruch. He was shot down by anti-aircraft fire on May 29, 1948. He had been part of the flight of four Czech-built Messerschmitts in the historic engagement which halted the Egyptian advance towards Tel Aviv.

Leslie “Lionel” Bloch, was killed while flying a Messerschmitt over the Syrian border on July 10, 1948. It seems that he shot his own aircraft in error, given the improvised aerial technology of the IAF at the time.

Basil Sanders was one of the trainees who had learnt to fly in (Mr Justice) Cecil Margo’s Germiston-based flying school, which had been designed to equip South African Jewish men with flying skills so that they could enlist in the Israel Air Force during the War of Independence. Sanders was a part of the batch of volunteers who landed on Israeli soil in 1950, but he succumbed to polio, three weeks later.

Natan Friedman was killed during aerobatic demonstrations during Yom Ha’atzmaut in 1951 when he fatally miscalculated a roll and flew into the ground.

David “Doody” Silbowitz and Neil Freed were members of Habonim who both made aliyah in 1971. Silbowitz was born in 1948 in Cape Town, and Freed, in 1949 in Johannesburg.

Freed gravitated toward Kibbutz Mayan Baruch in the late 1960s – he had volunteered in the Six Day Way in 1967. He returned to South Africa to read for a Unisa degree in sociology and psychology and became a very well-loved secretary of Habonim.

Foregoing the offer of a Rhodes scholarship for post-graduate study, Silbowitz, who had studied English and history at the University of Cape Town, went to Jerusalem in 1967 for a course in youth movement leadership.

In 1971, both young men made aliyah. They settled on Kibbutz Yizre’el and volunteered for the army. After basic training, they did advanced training in the tank corps and were allocated to reserve units. When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, Doody and Neil’s unit was sent to the Egyptian front. They were killed while operating on the Egyptian side of the Suez Canal, on October 18, 1973.

Brothers Adam and Gideon Weiler made aliyah with their parents and four siblings in 1957. The Weiler brothers were the sons of Rabbi Moses Weiler, one of the founders of the Progressive movement in South Africa.

Adam enlisted in the IDF in 1962, interrupting his studies at the University of Sussex to fight in the Six Day War in 1967. He was killed in 1970 while serving as a tanks company commander near the Suez Canal.

Gideon enlisted in 1968 and like his brother joined the Armoured Corps. After Adam’s death, Gideon was made a tanks instructor and was moved to fight in the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. Three days after the outbreak of the war, he was killed in a battle with Syrian tanks.

Lone soldier Dylan Walt made aliyah in 2013 and settled in Ra’anana. He joined the IDF and was assigned to the elite Egoz unit in the Golani Brigade. He too lost his life while serving in the Zahal. They will always be remembered.

The full list is as follows:
Avraham Isa Katz (01.07.1938), Yisrael Genosov (31.07.1944), Yonatan Levin (13.03.1948), Oded Kaploun (28.04.1948), Yehezkiel “Chatzi” Berelowitz (12.05.1948), Zvi Lipshitz (13.05.1948), Gideon Rosenberg (16.05.1948), Eddie Shlomo Cohen (30.05.1948), Lesley Morris Bloch (10.07.1948), Louis Hack (23.10.1948), Meir “Matey” Silber (23.10.1948), Benzion Sanders (11.07.1950), Shmuel Levinson (11.05.1951), Chaim Chait (23.09.1951), Natan Friedman (29.10.1951), Moshe Sidlin (25.12.1951), Joshua Levy (30.05.1952), Yitzchak Glazer (01.11.1956), Donald Lemkin (06.06.1967), Orit Lavi (12.08.1968), Harold Leibowitz (01.09.1969), Adam Weiler (31.03.1970), Daniel Kahan (02.04.1970), Avida Shur (10.04.1973), Rami Norman Katz (06.10.1973), Terrence Kaye (06.10.1973), Raymond Lowenberg (06.10.1973), Michael Goldman (07.10.1973), Avraham David Katz (07.10.1973), Michael Tamari (07.10.1973), Jacob Meir Bar-El (08.10.1973), Gideon Weiler (09.10.1973), Micha Urie (12.10.1973), Gideon Shanan (14.10.1973), Yigal Agayev (15.10.1973), Eli Aviram (16.10.1973), Ilan Haim Shapira (16.10.1973), Yitzhak Melcer (16.10.1973), David Jonathan “Doody” Silbowitz (18.10.1973), Neil Freed (18.10.1973), Rami Avraham Rubin (22.10.1973), Yochanan Comay (24.11.1973), Jonathan Shomroni (04.09.1974), Paul Whiteson (21.01.1975), Dr Yehonatan “John” Meir (23.07.1976), Chaim Solomon (10.05.1977), Shai Wittert (15.03.1978), Boaz Adar (15.01.1979), Alan Feldman (20.06.1979), Guy Golan (29.09.1979), Yochai Preiss (11.03.1980), Ofer Berman (08.10.1980), Roi Chemel (10.09.1981), Gary Myers (16.12.1981), Zohar Lipshitz (11.06.1982), Ran Zipper (11.06.1982), Ronen Eidelman (12.06.1982), Ron Messerer (16.06.1982), Joel Lahak (25.06.1982), Dan Fredman (28.08.1983), Jonathan Weinberger (30.11.1984), Yaron Gotsman (16.02.1985), Neil Ben-Atar (16.06.1986), Yonat Gordin (22.02.1987), Barry David Katz (09.09.1987), Idor Rabinowitz (25.11.1987), Mark Eilon (06.11.1989), Ilan Kaufman (22.04.1990), Tamar Zlotnik (01.10.1990), Avi Shemer (27.03.1991), Daniel Rockman (15.02.1995), Natai Shefts (19.09.1995), Gilad Moshe Misheiker (04.02.1997), Raz Aber (25.06.1997), Guy Loew (20.12.2000), Danny Ifrah (09.09.2001), David Damelin (03.03.2002), Steven Ian Kenisberg (03.03.2002), Avihu Yacob (03.05.2002), Matan Gadri (08.06.2003), Mark Shlomo Miller (13.08.2004), Yaniv Bar-On (12.07.2006), Lotan Slavin (24.07.2006), Naor Calo (09.08.2006), Asher Novick (09.08.2006), Maayan Rothenberg (30.11.2007), Dov Barry Harari (03.08.2010), Dylan Walt (23.12.2014)

This list is from Telfed, the South African Zionist Federation in Israel’s website.