70 years of stories

 Private Yehonatan/Jonathan (Tanchik) Levin/Levine

Son of Leah and Mordechai, born on 12^th Tevet 5690 (12.1.1930) in Ramat Gan. He was a devoted member of the Scouts Movement in his childhood. He was a pupil at the Herzliya Gymnasium where his father served as one of its first teachers. Yehonatan was one of those responsible for the topic of the Jewish National Fund at the school. He was very musical and played the violin from the age of eight until the day he died. (He performed in front of his subordinates at Hulda.) From his early school classes he displayed a love of nature, and a fondness for flora and fauna. He was drawn to agriculture and completed his agricultural studies at the Gymnasium with distinction. In addition he had great respect for Jewish tradition and studied Talmud with a private teacher. As a young man he was physically fit and excelled in swimming, running and basketball. He loved singing/poetry and he could recite many lines of verse/lyrics by heart. He especially loved the Bible. In his last letter which reached his parents two days after he fell, he wrote: “I would not need anything, if only you could send me my Bible. I am longing for it.”

He was serious and level headed and was known as a commander whose force of personality manifested itself in a quiet way and through his generosity. In 5807 he travelled with his fellow graduates from the Gymnasium to Kibbutz Dafna in the Galilee to participate in a training course in the framework of the Palmach. He played a central role in the social fabric of the group. A week before he fell he wrote to the Ben David family, whose son had fallen:  “The pain is great. There is just a small consolation knowing that he gave his life so that many of his comrades could live.” When the security situation deteriorated he completed a non-commissioned officer course and in that capacity was sent to the Hulata farm. From there he was sent out at the head of his squad to the village of Ichsania for a military operation. He was amongst the first to break into the farm which had caused security problems for the settlements in the Galilee. As a result of this battle the village was destroyed and its inhabitants fled, together with those of adjoining villages and a band of Iraqi militants who had moved in. Following the operation, the British Mandate authorities imposed a curfew on the movement on all the roads of the Galilee for a period of six days.

 In the course of the battle Yehonatan was wounded and he died on the 2^nd of Adar 5708 (13.3.1948.) He was buried at the cemetery in Hulata.

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(דף זה הוא חלק ממפעל ההנצחה הממלכתי ‘יזכור’, שנערך ע’י משרד הביטחון)