Leonard Eddy Fine was born in Toronto, Canada to a family of Russian immigrants. In his youth, he was very active in sports, playing in the basketball, football and baseball leagues. He was one of the founding fathers of Tri-Bell Sports Club, which evolved into a Jewish family Country Club of which he was a past president.
During World War 11 he served for five years in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a physical training instructor preparing pilots who were based in England.
Lenny was appointed the Ontario Region Commander of the Jewish War Veterans of Canada.
Afterwards, on his return back home, he was approached by D. Lou Harris and asked to take a group of young men to Israel as volunteers to fight in Israel’s War of Independence. Leonard put together a group of young men and was in charge of these volunteers.
He had served in the 72nd Infantry Battalion in the 7th Brigade. This Brigade was commanded by Canadian Ben Dunkelman, who was also from Toronto.
On the night of 6th September the only two platoons of the completely English-speaking “B” Company were sent to remove troublesome groups of observers and snipers of the Arab Liberation Army situated on the Kabul mountains, overlooking the small Arab village of Tamra.
Although they were not members of the two platoons, a handful of World War II veterans from Canada and South Africa (including Len Fine) joined them to assist wherever possible.
On the morning of 7th September, when the No. 1 platoon was hard-pressed and almost surrounded, members of No. 2 platoon, commanded by Sabra officer Zachariah (Arye) Feldman, and their South African sergeant Jeff Perlman, led a wild charge which forced the Arabs off the mountain peak. Amongst the three killed in this fire-fight was a young Canadian from Toronto who had been one of Len’s group travelling to Israel, Sidney Leisure.
Following this action the entire 72nd spent some weeks in Safed to participate in the “Hiram Operation” which was postponed because of the assassination of Count Bernadotte, the Swedish chief U.N. mediator, on 17th September 1948.
The battalion returned to its Samaria base near Akko on 28th September.
Shortly afterwards, the support company received its two Besa medium machine guns and a number of three-inch mortars. Later, around mid-October, Len Fine was appointed sergeant major of the support company.
Leonard Fine (second from left) and comrades
Leonard was one of the founders of the Association for the Welfare of Soldiers in Israel, and on his return to Canada he was the first president of the Toronto Machal Association. When Lenny received the Fighters Ribbon as a result of his volunteering in Israel’s War of Independence, Lenny said: “If you believe deeply in something, you must be willing to fight for it and even die for it.”