ELIYAHU HAKIM (age 17)
Eliyahu Hakim was born in 1927 to a wealthy family in Beirut . His father, a fine silk dealer, had always dreamed of returning to the Land of Israel and finally did so in 1933 when he moved his family to the port city of Haifa . Although the move had been a great financial risk, importing silk proved to be a very lucrative business and in 1936, the family moved into a spacious home on Mount Carmel overlooking the scenic Haifa bay. Haifa ’s nightclubs and cafés. Handsome and adventurous, he earned the nickname “Roxy” for his dancing abilities. Although he appeared to most people as a wild and carefree teenager, Eliyahu was deeply troubled by the oppression of his people under British occupation. Rumania had boarded a boat called the Struma . They planned to travel to Istanbul , apply for visas and then sail home to Palestine . The Struma was overcrowded and lacked adequate sanitary facilities. Despite engine problems, it reached Istanbul on December 16. There, the passengers were informed that Palestine ’s High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, would under no circumstances permit the ship to enter the country. The dilapidated boat was kept quarantined in Istanbul ’s harbor for more than two months. Turkish authorities denied the passengers permission to land without British agreement to their continued journey home. On February 23, the Turkish police towed the boat out to sea and abandoned it. It sank the next day and only one passenger, David Stoliar, survived. Posters with Sir Harold MacMichael’s face on them appeared all over Palestine reading: “Wanted for Murder” Struma , Eliyahu was invited by schoolmates to a Purim party. He wrote in his diary: “How can we even ask if we should have a Purim party? How can the youth of Palestine go to cafés and drink when they know that only yesterday our brothers drowned at sea? These people have no conscience. If we don’t understand what our reaction should be – that the very minimum we should do is mourn – then this has been a slap in the face to the entire Jewish people.” Cairo and assassinate Lord Moyne. The mission was successful but the boys were arrested. On trial, the two Eliyahus used the courtroom as a platform to educate the world to their struggle for freedom. At one point Hakim told the judges: “We accuse Lord Moyne and the government he represented of murdering hundreds and thousands of our brothers and sisters. We accuse them of stealing our homeland and our property…Where is the law by which they should be tried for their crimes?” Jerusalem .” Both Eliyahus then sang the HaTikva and were hanged.