Yuval Boiyum plays a verse from Lovers' Bread by Naomi Shemer/Walla system!
In Moshav Nahalel in the Jezreel Valley, Yusal'a Regev, a fighter in the Jewish Brigade, a fighter in Unit 101, a Mossad fighter and about whom and his friend Zavala Amit wrote the poem "We are from the same village" Naomi Shimar, passed away.
Regev, 99 years old, was born on Sukkot, October 1925, at the Emek Hospital in Maayan Harod to the veterans of the Second Aliyah, Yaakov and Yehudit Gerber.
He was a younger brother to Naomi.
That same day, the father wrote in his diary: "In the morning we put an incubator on 5 eggs. In the afternoon a son was born."
Limor Regev, his daughter-in-law, said that "the stubbornness and aggravation of Gerber, who was authorized to teach at the Lithuanian Slobodka yeshiva in Kovna, before he converted to ultra-Orthodox Zionism, regarding his principles, influenced Yosle and charted the course of his life."
The family said that "when Gerber found out that Yusla didn't come to school often, in first grade, they asked him what he would do about it. Gerber replied that there were already many scholars in the family. We had never had one before. Let the child do what he wants, and we'll see what comes out of him." .
In his youth, Yosle was active in the Haganah, and was the right-hand man of Amos Payne, the commander of the Territorial Defense.
He worked to hide weapons in the settlements in Nahalel, trained with weapons and was even sent into action in the area together with fighters older than him.
At the age of 17, he enlisted in the British Army and was drafted into the Corps of Engineers.
He went to Egypt, and from there to Italy, and later to Belgium, Holland and Germany.
During his service he was the confidant of the revenge men and the smuggling of the Jews in obtaining fuel for their illegal trips, but because of his young age he was not allowed to join the revenge operations against the Nazis.
When he was released from the army, Yosla joined the "escape organization" and was involved in smuggling Jewish refugees to Italy, training them and smuggling them to Israel.
He operated under a false identity under the name John Magnus from Leeds, who was traveling to Italy to study silkworm breeding.
Later in his life he will adopt other identities.
At the same time, a Jewish refugee received his release and identity cards, but despite the many exercises, the same refugee returned and recited that he was born in Sarfand (the camp where Yosleh enlisted in the British army - AA), and enlisted in the British army in Maayan Harod (where Yosleh was born - A .A).
When he returned to Israel, Regev went in to help with the family farm, but as soon as he returned to Haganah activities, he was a deputy in the administrative department of the organization. That's when his close friendship with Zabal'a Amit also began, which developed into friendship and an inseparable partnership, for the rest of their lives. Zabal'a , also ben Nahalel, was born two years after Yosl'a.
Yosl'a Regev/courtesy of the family
When the War of Independence broke out, the administrative department was declared a company in the 89th Raid Battalion, and Yosl'a became overnight from a military officer to a SMP and Zavala to a military officer. During the war, both were sent to an accelerated officers' course, and at the end of the war, after the Danish operation to liberate Lod and Ramla, occupation The Iraqi Suidan police and the occupation of the Western Negev returned to the economy, but the terrorist acts of the Fedayeen at the borders in the first years of the state disturbed their rest.
At the battalion conference, the former Major General, Avraham Yaffe, told that a young captain named Eric Sheinerman (later Eric Sharon) was forming a unit for retaliation.
The next day Yosal and Zavala got on a bus and drove to Jerusalem, knocked on the door of the house of Shinerman, who studied at the Hebrew University, and informed him that they had come to join the unit that had not yet been established.
The three of them sat, on the bench under the mulberry tree, and summarized the details.
This is how the 101st commando unit was formed.
With the unification of the 101st with the paratroopers, Yusal'a and Zaval'a were appointed MPs of Companies C and D, but after a short time they remembered that they did not want to be soldiers at all and asked to retire.
Every time they heard that there had been some kind of terrorist action, and they expected a retaliatory action - they would go to Arik, where there was equipment waiting for them, and they would join in every action.
The service in the GNA bored the two, and they went to Moshe Dayan to ask that he release them. "But if there is anything interesting, we will consider continuing the service," they told him. Dayan called Isser Harel, the head of the Mossad, and when he returned to the two, he told them: "Go to Kriya tomorrow and meet with a queen
Iser's assistant." The next day, Yusal and Zavala were recruited into the Mossad, which was then an organization in its infancy, numbering only dozens of people.
The two members Yosl'a Regev and Zaval'a Amit during their service at the institution/courtesy of the family
Their first trips were to North Africa, where they spent years in Morocco, establishing the "Framework" organization for the self-defense of the Jewish communities and the Illegal Aliya organization, and later moved to Tunis and Algeria stricken by civil war and rebellion.
They even came there with their families.
Yosal'a was married to Abigail (Gia), daughter of Moshav Atarot.
The family said that "all the while, Nahalel Gesha. It's not enough that Yusla and Zavala went to the army without getting the committee's approval, they also go abroad and don't explain why, and leave the farm to their old parents.
In the first two years, they asked for approval, and an extension, but then received a message that the committee did not approve their activities.
The visit of the assistant head of the Mossad to explain the importance of their tasks to the young country did not satisfy the moshav assembly either, and they were ordered to return or leave Nahalel.
If they don't leave, they won't allow their daughters to enter kindergartens and schools.
A rumor spread in the streets of Nahalel that no one knows what they are doing, and why do they even have a brothel in Hamburg?
Despite the war of the veterans - Assi Yaffe, Yani Avidev and others, in their favor, the decision was not changed, but it was never implemented either.
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Naomi Shemer/Reuven Castro
Then began periods of service in Europe as well, during which Yusla Regev and Zavala Amit met Naomi Shemer, who was then living in Paris.
Shemer heard many stories about the friendship between the two, and after the meetings, the song "We are both from the same village" was created, which she wrote.
The song was originally given to Yossi Banai, who gave it up and in the end he was successful in the performance of the Central Command Band in 1969, with vocalist Danny Wesley.
The song became one of the best known memorial songs in the history of the Hebrew singer and one of Shemer's most popular songs.
Over the years, other versions have been published as to the identity of the two men behind it.
According to the biography he wrote about Shemer Moti Zaira, the songstress has said over the years that there are several other figures who are also involved in it, for example Gor Mairov, the son of Shaul Avigor who fell in Sajra in the War of Independence, and Yankela, her cousin, who fought in the same battle.
In the early 1970s, Regev and Amit served in separate units.
Regev was appointed head of the branch in Cyprus.
These are the days after the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan in September 1970, when the organization tried to establish itself in Cyprus, and the streets of the island became a battlefield. He held the position of third secretary in the embassy, a fair diplomat who went around armed everywhere. One day an opportunity was revealed: one of the planners of the Munich massacre was staying at a hotel on the island. One of the hotel employees, who was on friendly terms with Regev, leaked the details to him. A special team arrived from Israel, and the terrorist blew himself up in his bed.
When the Yom Kippur War broke out, Regev was on duty in Cyprus, while Amit enlisted in the reserves and was with Eric Sharon in the command's APC.
A week after the outbreak of war, a colleague was killed by an Egyptian shelling near the Suez Canal.
He was 46 years old when he died.
Regev received the news in Cyprus and received permission to return to Israel.
From the airport he went directly to Sinai, replacing his friend in the seat next to Sharon in the command APC. Suddenly, the last stanza of Naomi Shemer's poem took on another painful meaning.
After the war he returned to the service and after several years he asked for an early retirement, but then the revolution broke out in Iran, and he was recruited again and flew there.
His son Eitan says: "The streets are stormy. Human life is like the skin of garlic. One night, militiamen stop Yosla and ask for his ID. 'Lucky you're French, you hosted Khomeini when he was in exile, you can go,' they told him."
He managed to get out of there on the last rescue plane that Israel sent to Iran, after Khomeini was already in Tehran.
This time Regev finally retired and became a farmer, which he really wanted to do all his life.
This afternoon Yosal'a Regev will be buried in the Nahalel cemetery.
He left behind three children: Yael, Ruti and Jonathan, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
"He walked a path full of dangers and pitfalls. A path full of hardships in enemy countries. A long journey of difficult wars and the loss of those closest to him. Unknown operations and immigration journeys of immigrants. Achievement after achievement on the road to revival, pioneering and the victory of the spirit of the State of Israel that he loved so much. Today lies Yusal'a in the land he loved so much," said his daughter-in-law Limor Regev.
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