WORLD MACHAL - Volunteers from overseas in the Israel Defense Forces

Moshe Avigdor Perlstein

Moshe Avigdor PerlsteinSon of Shmuel and Ella who were active and veteran Zionists, he was born in Jersey City, USA, on 24th November, 1925.

He studied at the Rabbi Yitzhak Elchanan Yeshiva in New York and was an instructor and member of the “Torah and Avodah” Movement there.

After two years he completed his studies, in 1944, at the Yeshiva University of Rabbi Elchanan and then joined a training farm of the “Hashomer Hadati” at Cranborough, New Jersey.

In March 1947 he made Aliyah to Israel and spent some time on Kibbutz “Ein Hanatziv. Later, he moved to Jerusalem and registered at the Hebrew University to study Judaism and Agriculture, in order to return to a life of labor on completion of his studies.

At the outbreak of the War of Independence he saw the need to enlist in the defense of the Homeland and participated in numerous activities helping to defend Jerusalem. He then joined the “Lamed-Hey” platoon of Palmach Harel. This platoon had volunteered to attempt a break through and relieve the besieged “Gush Etzion” Bloc.

On 16th January 1948, the entire group were ambushed in the Hebron Hills and massacred.

He was buried at Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, on 25th January 1948, and eventually re-interred at Mount Herzl military cemetery on 17th November in a common grave with all the other fallen of the Etzion Bloc.

Link to Irving Fellner story

Source: Translated from the Yizkor website by Joe Woolf