Rosh Hashanah 1944 was for Shmuel Giladi the beginning of a new chapter in life. Two days after celebrating the holiday with his family, he left his home in Baghdad carrying a bag of dates, and boarded a British army truck where he was hiding with other young Jews. After a two-day journey, the truck crossed the border from the Kingdom of Jordan. "The driver announced that we were in Eretz Israel and all the friends began to rattle with joy," Shmuel said of that Saturday morning in August 96. He passed away a week ago at the age of 1927.
He was born in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in 1941, the son of Shaul and Esther Giladi, with whom he had two daughters and six sons. His father, Shaul, worked for a number of bookkeeping and clerical merchants. His family had a deep Zionist consciousness. Every few days, the Daily Mail newspaper was sent home from Israel, and his father's library included books dealing with the awakening of the Zionist movement. Two of Samuel's cousins bore the names Weizmann and Balfour, after one of the leaders of the Zionist movement – as well as the British leader who recognized the right of the Jews to establish a national home in the Land of Israel.
Towards the end of the 179s, the grind of Jews in Iraq began to be undermined by growing sympathy for the ideas of the Nazi movement and the visit to Baghdad of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, and in April <> a group of pro-Nazi officers staged a coup against British rule. Two months later, riots broke out in Baghdad against the Jewish community, known as the Farhud pogroms, in which <> Jews were murdered and over <>,<> were wounded. Only after the catastrophe did the British forces enter the city.
Shmuel (right) and Yitzhak Giladi at the youth society at Kibbutz Maoz Haim in 1944-1945/Courtesy of the family
With the entry of the British, the economic situation of the Jews improved, but they felt that the homeland in which they had lived for many generations had turned its back on them and that they were no longer safe in it. Young Jews began to organize for the Haganah, at the same time as the Jewish community in Eretz Israel, which was shocked by the pogrom in Iraq and decided to act within the Jewish community. The Jewish Agency authorized the Mossad to send emissaries to Baghdad to establish the Zionist movement, and later three emissaries were sent on their behalf: Dr. Enzo Sireni from Kibbutz Givat Brenner, Shmaryahu Gutman from Kibbutz Na'an, and Ezra Kadoorie from Kibbutz Maoz Haim, whose mission was to organize the Jews for self-defense – and at the same time to encourage and assist their immigration to Eretz Israel.
One day, Shmuel's brother, Shlomo, arrived with a package of Hebrew books from Eretz Israel. "I flipped through books enthusiastically and realized that my brother had joined the Zionist movement," Shmuel later wrote in his memoirs. "I started nagging him to put me in the Zionist movement as well, and I was met with a total refusal on his part, claiming that it would disrupt my studies." However, his brother soon brought him into the movement, along with some of his friends. The group's leader was Raphael Zurani, one of the first leaders of the Zionist underground in Baghdad. At this point, it was clear to Shmuel that he wanted to immigrate to Eretz Israel. "We sang Israeli songs in Hebrew, took trips and were a close-knit group with all eyes on immigrating to Israel as soon as possible," he said.
After his brothers, Shlomo, Isaac and Rachel, left home and immigrated to Eretz Israel, Shmuel decided his time had come. The truck in which he crossed the border into Eretz Israel, together with other young men, was a British army truck that brought a shipment of chocolate from Eretz Israel to the British soldiers in Iraq, and its driver was Jewish. "It was morning time and many members of the farm who were still eating Shabbat breakfast came out to us happily," Shmuel said of their arrival at Kibbutz Ein Harod. "Among them were Yitzhak Tabenkin and Aaron Zisling, who were among the leaders of the Yishuv in Eretz Israel, and only later did we learn who they were." Shmuel's goal for housing was Kibbutz Maoz Haim, where he was supposed to join a youth society in which his brother, Yitzhak, also participated.
Immigrated to Israel on a chocolate truck carrying supplies to the British soldiers in Israel / Courtesy of the family
In the summer of 1945, Shmuel's parents and younger siblings also arrived in Israel, renting an apartment in Tel Aviv's Hatikva neighborhood when his father's health deteriorated. Therefore, at the end of his training in Maoz Haim, Shmuel moved in with his family to help support the house, instead of continuing with his friends to recruit training for the Palmach. He worked in construction, and later took courses in sociology and Hebrew grammar from the Tel Aviv municipality and the Hebrew University.
One day, Shmuel met a friend who told him about the possibility of joining the Haganah, which led him to make a quick decision. "I went with him to one of the buildings on Ben Zion Boulevard. We went up to the fourth floor, entered an almost dark apartment. My colleague came in first and swore to 'protection.' After him, I entered. There was a guy sitting there, in a dark room, with a lit candle and a Bible. He asked me a few questions, and I told him that in Iraq I was in the Zionist underground and after immigrating to Israel I was sent to Kibbutz Maoz Haim in a group that trained in weapons, where we even swore to Haganah as teenagers. Minutes later, I was sworn in again."
With the beginning of the War of Independence, Shmuel was drafted into the defense of Holon, to which his family had moved a short time before, and later was transferred together with his comrades to the battle front near the Sarafand camp, where the forces fought until the declaration of a lull on June 11, 1948. In one of the battles, in which several of the fighters who fought alongside him fell, he was shot in the leg and severely wounded. Shmuel later wrote down the story of the campaign, which in his opinion was conducted in an unfavorable manner. "I decided to write about the battle that took place so many years ago because I felt obligated, as the last fighter who came out of the olive grove severely wounded, I had to inform the families about everything that happened there."
"I must inform the families of what happened in the battle from which I left seriously wounded"/Courtesy of the family
After his discharge from military service, he returned to work in construction. During those years, new neighborhoods were built in Holon and Shmuel worked as a subcontractor in various projects throughout the city and was one of the builders of the new neighborhoods that were intended to absorb the thousands of new immigrants who arrived in Israel. In 1966 he established a contracting company that built many buildings in Holon and throughout the country. Over the years he was active in the National Association of Contractors and a board member of the Holon Contractors Association. As part of his membership in the Association of Builders of the Land, Shmuel took part in various volunteer events such as MDA and in assisting student organizations.
Shmuel was also active in raising money for public health purposes, raising 1973,25 liras in just three days for Hadassah Hospital to buy a ventilator that saved dozens of soldiers during the war – and even donated $95,2017 from his aunt's estate to Dana Children's Hospital. He was also chairman of the Haganah Members Association in Holon, and in <> he was awarded the Medal of Merit of the City.
Shmuel Giladi, Chairman of the Haganah Friends Organization, Holon Branch / Courtesy of the family
Shmuel is survived by his wife Rachel, his three sons Meir, Chaim and Dudi, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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