Avraham Avigdorov

Avigdorov was born on 2 July 1929 in Mitzpa, a Jewish agricultural community in the Lower Galilee near Tiberias, to Rachel and Gad Avigdorov.[1] His father, a member of the Hashomer organization, was killed by Arab rioters while guarding the community on 11 August 1936, when Avigdorov was seven years old.[1]

Avigdorov studied agriculture at the Mikveh Israel agricultural school and completed his studies in 1947. He then joined a training group at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan and enlisted in the Palmach, where he was assigned to the Yiftah Brigade.[1][2]

On 17 March 1948, Avigdorov joined a Palmach force sent to intercept an Arab convoy carrying weapons and ammunition from Beirut toward Haifa.[1][2] The force prepared an ambush near Haifa for what became known as the Battle of Kiryat Motzkin. His daughter later said the fighters had been told that the convoy had to be stopped at any cost.[2]

The official citation for Avigdorov's actions states: "He jumped into the road in front of the convoy and, firing from the hip with his submachine gun, destroyed two Bren machine guns of the enemy at point-blank range. In this way he determined the battle in our favor, but he himself was wounded in the action by an explosion."[2]

Avigdorov was so severely wounded that he was taken to a hospital morgue in the mistaken belief that he had died. His daughter recounted that he was removed after he began moaning, while the official memorial record similarly states that the error was discovered after he had been transferred to the morgue.[1][2]

For his conduct at Kiryat Motzkin, Avigdorov received the Hero of Israel citation. The July 1949 award ceremony honored him and eleven other Israeli soldiers.[2] In 1973, the citation was converted into the Medal of Valor.[1] The Ministry of Defense memorial record identifies his rank as private.[1]

In April 1968, Avigdorov was designated to symbolize the fighters of the 1948 War of Independence at the state ceremony opening Israel's 20th Independence Day celebrations.[3] He lit a torch in their honor at the ceremony on Mount Herzl.[1]

Following approximately a year of rehabilitation at a hospital in Haifa, Avigdorov worked as a taxi driver with assistance from the Ministry of Defense. He married Aliza in 1955 and joined the Ministry of Agriculture that year, eventually becoming a plant-protection department manager and pest-control inspector.[1] The family lived in Kiryat Haim and Ramat Hasharon before moving to Herzliya.[1]

After the Yom Kippur War, Avigdorov visited the families of wounded soldiers to show that life could continue despite injury and disability. Aliza, who said she had lived alongside him for 58 years, recalled that he "always chose life" and was known for saying, "There is no such thing as a hopeless situation."[2]

Avigdorov fractured his pelvis in a fall in 2011, after which his health deteriorated.[1] He died on 4 September 2012 at the age of 83. His daughter attributed his death to complications connected to the wound he had suffered in 1948.[2] He was buried in the military cemetery in Herzliya.[1]