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"It burned in him": the falafel seller from Kiryat Shmona who dedicated his life to the memory of the fallen
Benjamin Shmula immigrated to Israel from Iraq and came to Kiryat Shmona 70 years ago - and over the years has become one of the most well-known figures in the city.
After the fall of his son in the Yom Kippur War, he worked tirelessly to commemorate the IDF casualties. This month he passed away at the age of 85.
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Kiryat Shmona
Bereaved parents
Eli Ashkenazi
Tuesday, September 28, 2021, 9:30 p.m.
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Benjamin Shmula came to Kiryat Shmona 70 years ago, which was then a small town.
The residents lived in the "Halsa" transit camp.
In the same year, 1951, the small settlement doubled and more, and from 1,500 inhabitants grew to 4,000.
Much has changed since then in Kiryat Shmona.
Employment and security crises undermined the stability of the place, and affected the rapid turnover of residents who came and left, but Benjamin Shmola always remained loyal to the city.
Even two Katyushas that fell on his house and in the yard of the house did not move him and Geula, his wife, from her.
Since coming to the settlement in the spring of 1951, he has become one of the most well-known and identified figures with Kiryat Shmona.
He passed away three weeks ago at the age of 85.
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70 years in Kiryat Shmona.
Benjamin Shmula (Photo: courtesy of the family)
Benjamin Shmula was born in 1936 to Jacob and Miriam in the city of Arbil in northern Iraq, where a Jewish community has lived since the end of the Second Temple period.
He studied at the Beit Midrash of Rabbi Yaakov Saina.
Later, when the Shmula family immigrated to Israel, Rabbi Saina also immigrated and settled in Kiryat Shmona.
Since the 1920s, the Jews of Arbil began to immigrate to Israel.
The community then numbered close to 5,000 people.
At the end of the 1940s, the Zionist consciousness among the members of the community strengthened, and in 1951, all those who remained immigrated to Eretz Israel.
There were no more Jews left in Arbil.
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The aliyah operation was organized by activists who came from Israel.
The condition set by the Iraqi government as an agreement for the Jews to leave the country was a ban on taking money and property out of it.
Members of the Shmula family, a couple of parents and their seven children - three of whom have already married - were taken to Baghdad with other immigrants and from there flew to Israel.
Upon landing, they were taken to the "Sha'ar Aliya" immigrant camp in Haifa.
When asked by state officials, Benjamin's parents said they were interested in living in Kiryat Shmona.
In the transit camp in the north lived relatives who told them that there is no difference between the localities across the country.
Lantern light wedding
Two weeks later, in early April 1951, the family arrived at the tent camp at the foot of a high ridge in the Upper Galilee.
Kiryat Shmona was established only two years earlier.
The Shmula family, like the other occupants of the transit camp, are housed in a tent where iron beds are folded.
A few months later, tents began to be built in the transit camp, which were considered much better than the tents.
After Yaakov Shmola's requests to move to the barn were rejected, he invaded the barn he, his wife and their four children lived in for about two years, until housing was built in the town and the family bought a small apartment there.
A Menara View of Kiryat Shmona, 1955 (Photo: Government Press Office, Fritz Cohen)
Benjamin, then a young boy, began working in agriculture in Moshav Shear Yashuv to help his family.
When the Histadrut opened a flooring course, Benjamin learned the craft and then began working as a flooring.
He passed the salary to his parents, and in the evening he studied.
In Kiryat Shmona, he met Geula, who also immigrated with her family from Iraq.
In 1953 they married.
He told the volunteers of the "Israel is visible to the eye" documentation project that the wedding took place in a transit camp during daylight hours, before dark, because there was no electricity - and only lanterns illuminated the barracks.
The couple received a hut, a key mattress, black blankets and a folding bed.
After a while, they got to move into a 32-square-meter apartment, like the rest of the families.
Raised five children.
Benjamin and Geula Shmula (Photo: courtesy of the family)
After many years of working as a continuum, Benjamin bought a vegetable store downtown, but many years of paving and hauling vegetable crates caused him severe back pain - and he chose to find another livelihood.
In 1970 he bought a falafel sale business that operated near his vegetable shop.
"Benjamin's Falafel" is considered a thing in the city, and has been operating for 51 years in a row.
Today he continues to work at the place where Asher, Benjamin's son.
The burden of bereavement
Benjamin and Geula had five children: Yoav, Yehuda, Batsheva, Asher and Sami. Yoav the Elder enlisted in November 1971 as a fighter in the Golani Brigade. When the Yom Kippur War broke out, he immigrated with his unit to the Golan Heights, as part of the force tasked with recapturing the Hermon outpost occupied by the Syrian army. That day was his 20th birthday. Two days later, on the third day of the war, on October 8, 1973, he was with his comrades in the Zahalam, who began to climb the mountain. face flag brought with him.
one of his disciples Yoav opposite commanders' course was Gabi Ashkenazi. When he was chief of staff, Ashkenazi wrote to his commander's parents that "Yoav's figure largely symbolizes for me my first steps as a commander and soldier in the IDF and the Golani Brigade.
"He was an enterprising commander who strives to achieve his goals steadily and tirelessly, while at the same time knowing his subordinates and knowing how to maintain them," Ashkenazi added.
"He was a warrior of grace and a brave commander, enterprising and honest, whose mouth and heart are equal and who does not compromise on quality and excellence. To these values were added Yoav's qualities: his sensitivity, modesty, physical strength and boundless dedication to mission and people alike."
Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Goren at the inauguration ceremony of the "Yoav plot" synagogue, named after Yoav Shmula (Photo: courtesy of the family)
The bereaved parents, Benjamin and Geula, decided to commemorate the name of their eldest son by establishing a synagogue in Kiryat Shmona bearing the name "Plot of Yoav." At the inauguration ceremony of the synagogue, a prayer was held for the upliftment of his soul, followed by the speech of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Defense Minister Shimon Peres, his comrades-in-arms from the Rabbinical School, Rabbi Tzafania Drori and Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avraham Aloni. Benjamin Beit Midrash, with the assistance of the Ministry of Defense.
For many years, Benjamin was a key activist at the Yad LaBanim branch in the city and held the position of deputy chairman of the branch.
Sami Malul, a bereaved brother and a resident of Kiryat Shmona, said that the field of commemoration burned in him.
Together with David Edri, also a bereaved father, who was the chairman of the branch, the two made Beit Yad Labanim a central and significant place in the city.
They raised budgets, made sure to build an impressive and dignified memorial room and then build an adjoining synagogue.
"Students started coming to the place and learning about the IDF casualties, the people of the city," said Malul.
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