Shmuel Yanai
Encyclopedia
Shmuel "Samek" Yanai (January, 1921-June 26, 2011) is a former Israel
i naval commander and chair of the Atlit Museum of Illegal Immigration at the Atlit detainee camp
.
, Yanai came to Mandate Palestine, by himself at the age of 14. He studied at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology and settled in kibbutz
Neve Eitan
in the Beit She'an Valley
, and in 1943, entered their naval group. The Naval Group grew, and towards the end of World War II
became the Palmach's 10th Company, better known as the Palyam
. When the Palmach was organized into battalion
s, the Palyam was attached to the Palmach's Staff Battalion (the 4th Battalion).
Samek served in Company 'A' and was commander of two illegal immigration
ships, Haviva Reik
, which sailed from Piraeus
on May 28, 1946 and arrived in Palestine on June 8, 1946 with 462 passengers, and Henrietta Szold
, which sailed from Piraeus
along with a second, smaller boat named Rafi (commanded by Palyam member Arieh (Kipi) Kaplan), and arrived in Palestine
on August 12, 1946 with 536 passengers. The engines on Henrietta Szold failed and Rafi towed it to the Syrna
Island Gulf, where they were delayed a few days until the problem was fixed. On nearing Haifa
, the British intercepted the boat and the British destroyer HMS Ajax
, best known for defeating the Admiral Graf Spee
at the Battle of the River Plate
, rammed the ship. British soldiers then soldiers boarded, fought and captured the passengers and transferred them to Tent Camp No. 55 near Famagusta
, on Cyprus
. The Haganah escorts remained with the immigrants during the first deportation phase and escaped the detention camp with the help of 'Mossad Aliyah Bet'.
From 1947 until the Israeli independence, he served as commander of Palyam
as commander of the first Israeli Navy Flotilla, composed out of four illegal ships. On March 17, 1948 the Naval Service (precursor of the Israeli Sea Corps
) was established and the Palyam
members were ordered to join it.
On August 24, 1948, Yanai commanded “Hashoded” operation at sea. Two Israeli corvettes took over the Arjiro, a ship loaded with weapons and ammunition on its way to supply Arab forces. The cargo was transferred to the Israeli forces fighting the War of Independence. The Arjiro was sunk.
In 1951 Yanai studied at the Technion. In 1952 he began his studies at M.I.T. and in 1954 obtained an engineering and management Master's degrees, becoming one of the first I.D.F officers to study academically abroad. In 1954 he returned to serve at the Navy. In 1955 he headed a mission of Naval officers to Britain, overseeing the upgrade of two “Z”-class destroyers purchased from the U.K., a benchmark in the Israeli Navy transition to a better equipped naval force.
In 1956, during Operation Kadesh in the Suez Crisis
, Yanai captured the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim el Awal
, which became INS Haifa.
's mayor Yehoshua Rabinovtch developing the city's outskirts: Hayarkon bridge; "Menashiya
"; "Shikun Lamed
" and "Ramat Aviv Gimmel" neighborhoods. In the late 60's he operated a deep sea commercial fishing enterprise from Eritrea, importing fish to Israel via the Red Sea
and Eilat. In 1970-1986 he developed residential and commercial real estate projects in Eilat and other parts of Israel.
From 1998-2005 he organized meetings and symposium of Palyam
veterans, immigrants, and British Navy officers.
In 2000 Yanai started "Hasfinot Shebadereh", a publishing company. In 2001 he published with Yosef Almog and the Palyam Fund a book titled "The Gates Are Open, Collection of Memories, Clandestine Immigration". The book contains 194 Hebrew articles written by Ha'apala & Palyam operatives or their family members, detailing their part in the Ha'apala operations. Twenty three additional English language articles were written by Canadian and U.S. operatives.
In 2006 "Hasfinot Shebadereh" published the Hebrew language book "Facing the Locked Gate, The Odyssey of the Illegal Immigrants of Knesset Israel", Illustrated by Shemuel Katz
and written by Tehila Ofer. The author and illustrator were both young immigrants on "Knesset Israel".
In 2003 he was the entrepreneur and historical adviser of Gan Ha'apala, located at the western end of Bugrashov street overlooking the Tel Aviv seashore. The site commemorates Ha'apala operations and was built with a donation by Sir Ronald Cohen and his wife Lady Sharon Harel-Cohen, in memory of Sir Ronald's father, Michael Cohen.
In 2009 he was the first recipient of the Yossi Harel
Award, awarded by the Yossi Harel Fund to persons who significantly contributed to the commemoration of Ha'apala.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i naval commander and chair of the Atlit Museum of Illegal Immigration at the Atlit detainee camp
Atlit detainee camp
The Atlit detainee camp was a detention camp established by the British at the end of the 1930s on what is now Israel's northern coast south of Haifa. The camp was established to prevent Jewish refugees, mainly Holocaust survivors, from entering then-Palestine...
.
Biography
Born Shmuel Poznanski in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Yanai came to Mandate Palestine, by himself at the age of 14. He studied at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology and settled in kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
Neve Eitan
Neve Eitan
Neve Eitan is a kibbutz in the Beit She'an Valley in northern Israel. Located about 1 km east of Beit She'an and 1 km west of Maoz Haim, it is under the jurisdiction of Valley of Springs Regional Council.-History:...
in the Beit She'an Valley
Military career
In 1941 Yanai joined the PalmachPalmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
, and in 1943, entered their naval group. The Naval Group grew, and towards 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...
became the Palmach's 10th Company, better known as the Palyam
Palyam
Palyam was the sea force of the Palmach.-History:Palyam was set up in April 1945 as the Palmach's tenth company which originated from the Palmach's Naval Platoon. The Company's first commander was Abraham Zakai...
. When the Palmach was organized into battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
s, the Palyam was attached to the Palmach's Staff Battalion (the 4th Battalion).
Samek served in Company 'A' and was commander of two illegal immigration
Ha'apala
Aliyah Bet |bet]] being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of British White Paper of 1939 restrictions, in the years 1934-1948. In modern day Israel it has also been called by the Hebrew...
ships, Haviva Reik
Haviva Reik
Haviva Reick was one of 32 or 33 Palestinian Jewish parachutists sent by the Jewish Agency and Britain's Special Operations Executive on military missions in Nazi-occupied Europe....
, which sailed from Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
on May 28, 1946 and arrived in Palestine on June 8, 1946 with 462 passengers, and Henrietta Szold
Henrietta Szold
Henrietta Szold was a U.S. Jewish Zionist leader and founder of the Hadassah Women's Organization. In 1942, she co-founded Ihud, a political party in Mandate Palestine dedicated to a binational solution.-Biography:...
, which sailed from Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
along with a second, smaller boat named Rafi (commanded by Palyam member Arieh (Kipi) Kaplan), and arrived in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
on August 12, 1946 with 536 passengers. The engines on Henrietta Szold failed and Rafi towed it to the Syrna
Syrna
Syrna is a Greek village in the west of Arcadia. Syrna is in the municipal unit of Trikolonoi. Syrna is connected with the road linking the GR-76 and the Karytaina-Dimitsana Road...
Island Gulf, where they were delayed a few days until the problem was fixed. On nearing 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...
, the British intercepted the boat and the British destroyer HMS Ajax
HMS Ajax (22)
HMS Ajax was a Leander class light cruiser which served with the British Royal Navy during World War II. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, the Battle of Crete, the Battle of Malta and as a supply escort in the Siege of Tobruk. This ship was the eighth in the Royal...
, best known for defeating the Admiral Graf Spee
German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee
Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron that fought the battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands in World War I...
at the Battle of the River Plate
Battle of the River Plate
The Battle of the River Plate was the first naval battle in the Second World War. The German pocket battleship had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September 1939...
, rammed the ship. British soldiers then soldiers boarded, fought and captured the passengers and transferred them to Tent Camp No. 55 near Famagusta
Famagusta
Famagusta is a city on the east coast of Cyprus and is capital of the Famagusta District. It is located east of Nicosia, and possesses the deepest harbour of the island.-Name:...
, on Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
. The Haganah escorts remained with the immigrants during the first deportation phase and escaped the detention camp with the help of 'Mossad Aliyah Bet'.
From 1947 until the Israeli independence, he served as commander of Palyam
Palyam
Palyam was the sea force of the Palmach.-History:Palyam was set up in April 1945 as the Palmach's tenth company which originated from the Palmach's Naval Platoon. The Company's first commander was Abraham Zakai...
as commander of the first Israeli Navy Flotilla, composed out of four illegal ships. On March 17, 1948 the Naval Service (precursor of the Israeli Sea Corps
Israeli Sea Corps
The Israeli Navy is the naval arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in the Mediterranean Sea theater as well as the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea theater. The current commander in chief of the Israeli Navy is Aluf Ram Rothberg.-History:...
) was established and the Palyam
Palyam
Palyam was the sea force of the Palmach.-History:Palyam was set up in April 1945 as the Palmach's tenth company which originated from the Palmach's Naval Platoon. The Company's first commander was Abraham Zakai...
members were ordered to join it.
On August 24, 1948, Yanai commanded “Hashoded” operation at sea. Two Israeli corvettes took over the Arjiro, a ship loaded with weapons and ammunition on its way to supply Arab forces. The cargo was transferred to the Israeli forces fighting the War of Independence. The Arjiro was sunk.
In 1951 Yanai studied at the Technion. In 1952 he began his studies at M.I.T. and in 1954 obtained an engineering and management Master's degrees, becoming one of the first I.D.F officers to study academically abroad. In 1954 he returned to serve at the Navy. In 1955 he headed a mission of Naval officers to Britain, overseeing the upgrade of two “Z”-class destroyers purchased from the U.K., a benchmark in the Israeli Navy transition to a better equipped naval force.
In 1956, during Operation Kadesh in the Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
, Yanai captured the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim el Awal
HMS Mendip (L60)
HMS Mendip was a Hunt class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was a member of the first subgroup of the class. The ship is notable for seeing service in the navies of three other nations after her use by the Royal Navy. She saw service in the Second World War and later as an Egyptian Navy ship in...
, which became INS Haifa.
Civilian career
After leaving the Navy, he was one of 9 founding members of "Tzevet", the first I.D.F. veterans organization. Between 1963-1965 he served as the third "Tzevet" chairman. In the 1960s he worked under Tel Aviv-YaffoTel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
's mayor Yehoshua Rabinovtch developing the city's outskirts: Hayarkon bridge; "Menashiya
Menashiya
Menashiya or Manshiyya, was a residential neighborhood of Jaffa, Israel. It was located on the border between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. The neighborhood was demolished in order to build a central business district, but only some of the planned office buildings were constructed. Two buildings remain from...
"; "Shikun Lamed
Shikun Lamed
Shikun Lamed is a residential neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel. It is located in the northwestern part of the city....
" and "Ramat Aviv Gimmel" neighborhoods. In the late 60's he operated a deep sea commercial fishing enterprise from Eritrea, importing fish to Israel via the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and Eilat. In 1970-1986 he developed residential and commercial real estate projects in Eilat and other parts of Israel.
Ha'apala commemoration
From 2000-2008 he served as the chairman of the Atlit Museum of Illegal Immigration.From 1998-2005 he organized meetings and symposium of Palyam
Palyam
Palyam was the sea force of the Palmach.-History:Palyam was set up in April 1945 as the Palmach's tenth company which originated from the Palmach's Naval Platoon. The Company's first commander was Abraham Zakai...
veterans, immigrants, and British Navy officers.
In 2000 Yanai started "Hasfinot Shebadereh", a publishing company. In 2001 he published with Yosef Almog and the Palyam Fund a book titled "The Gates Are Open, Collection of Memories, Clandestine Immigration". The book contains 194 Hebrew articles written by Ha'apala & Palyam operatives or their family members, detailing their part in the Ha'apala operations. Twenty three additional English language articles were written by Canadian and U.S. operatives.
In 2006 "Hasfinot Shebadereh" published the Hebrew language book "Facing the Locked Gate, The Odyssey of the Illegal Immigrants of Knesset Israel", Illustrated by Shemuel Katz
Shemuel Katz
For the writer and MK, see Shmuel Katz .Shmuel Katz was an Israeli artist, illustrator, and cartoonist...
and written by Tehila Ofer. The author and illustrator were both young immigrants on "Knesset Israel".
In 2003 he was the entrepreneur and historical adviser of Gan Ha'apala, located at the western end of Bugrashov street overlooking the Tel Aviv seashore. The site commemorates Ha'apala operations and was built with a donation by Sir Ronald Cohen and his wife Lady Sharon Harel-Cohen, in memory of Sir Ronald's father, Michael Cohen.
In 2009 he was the first recipient of the Yossi Harel
Yossi Harel
Yossi Harel , born Yosef Hamburger was the supervisor of the Exodus 1947 operation and a leading member of the Israeli intelligence community.-Biography:...
Award, awarded by the Yossi Harel Fund to persons who significantly contributed to the commemoration of Ha'apala.
External links
- Yannai (Poznanski) Samuel (Samak), Son of Yeheskel Palmach Members, Palmach Information Center
- The Palmach and The Palmach Museum Official site of Palmach and Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv
- Palyam Official site of Palyam (mainly Hebrew, but English section)
- Jerusalem Post article: Grapevine: Honoring the past by celebrating in the present
- Aliyah Bet Voyages Aliyah Bet Voyages, part of the Aliyah Bet Project, includes pictures and details of the boats of Aliyah Bet, ports of origin, dates of sailing, dates of arrival in Palestine and the number of immigrants on board. The page entitled List #2 1945 -1948, includes details of both boats, the Haviva Reik and the Henrietta Szold, commanded by Shmuel Yanai
- The Darien Dilemma, People in the Film