Yitzhak "Ike" Aronowicz was the captain of the immigrant ship SS Exodus, which unsuccessfully tried to dock in British-occupied Palestine with Holocaust survivors on July 11, 1947, after the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. His surname was later spelled as Ahronovitch.

Born in the Free City of Danzig

Free City of Danzig

The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....

 (now Gdansk, Poland), he came to the land later known as Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 at the age of 10. Aged 23, he was the captain of the SS Exodus, on its trip from the port of Sète

Sète

Sète is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. Its inhabitants are called Sétois....

, France, a fishing town on July 11, 1947 carrying 4,515 passengers which was intercepted by a fleet of British war ships led by the British Royal Navy cruiser Ajax and a convoy of destroyers trailed the ship from very early in its voyage. Two British destroyers rammed the ship. After several hours of hand-to-hand combat between passengers armed with smoke bombs trying to prevent British sailors from boarding the ship, the British opened fire. Two immigrants and a crewman were killed, and many passengers seriously wounded. The ship was towed to Haifa

Haifa

Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

, where it was abandoned. The passengers were deported to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and then to Lübeck, Germany

Lübeck

The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

. In 1953 the SS Exodus was burned to the waterline, and in 1963 its remains were finally dismantled.

He was a highly experienced naval officer and had sailed with many ships. He was highly trained in the officers course in London - for third, then second, and then first officer. Aronowicz later studied for a M.B.A. at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in the 1960s.

Death

Aronowicz died in Israel on December 23, 2009, aged 86. He was survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

In a statement after his death Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres

GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...

, the Israeli president, said Ahronovitch had "made a unique contribution to the state which will never be forgotten".