God's Company (Israel)
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God's Company is a nickname given to the C
company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
in the 33rd battalion of the
Alexandroni Brigade The Alexandroni Brigade (3rd Brigade) is an Israel Defense Forces brigade that has fought in multiple Israeli wars. History Along with the 7th Armoured Brigade both units had 139 killed during the first battle of Latrun (1948), Operation Ben Nu ...
in the
IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...
, roughly 100 men, who were outflanked and destroyed (67 casualties) by the Egyptian forces during attempting to conquer
Faluja pocket al-Faluja ( ar, الفالوجة) was a Palestinian Arab village in the British Mandate for Palestine, located 30 kilometers northeast of Gaza City. The village and the neighbouring village of Iraq al-Manshiyya formed part of the Faluja pocket, ...
(operation Hisul). They were led by Ben Zion Helman who refused an order to retreat, saying "I will not leave, until the last of the wounded is evacuated".". An Egyptian officer,
Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
, described their stand as courageous and said he understood it after learning they took a
tefillin Tefillin (; Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. Te ...
with them into battle.67 dead, Who remembers "God's platoon"
Maariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or night. It consists primarily of the evening ''Shema'' and '' Amidah''. The service will often begin with two verses from Psalms, ...
(NRG website, in Hebrew)
They were buried with a military funeral by the Egyptian forces (firing three times from a cannon).


Etymology

One of the sources says that the company gained the nickname God's company when a high-ranking officer witnessed them praying before going to eat after returning from a day of a battle, another says it was nicknamed because they all survived many battles.Mabat , the story of the religious company in the 1948 war, March 3'rd 2016


Background

The company consisted of men from
Bnei Brak Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq ( he, בְּנֵי בְּרַק ) is a city located on the central Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Israeli coastal plain, coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an are ...
,
Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...
, and
Givatayim Givatayim ( he, גִּבְעָתַיִים, lit. "two hills") is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. In it had a population o ...
, and was one of the three religious platoons. The company included 20 Holocaust survivors with 5 being Netzer Aharon (last survivors). During a week that they learned that there were no kosher dishes, they had been eating only brine fish and bread. Their actions and the ''Cooks affair'' (when the cooks had been order to make food on Shabbat) in July 1948 led to the order that IDF kitchens must be
kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
.


Battles

* The company was one of the companies that conquered what is today known as
Tel HaShomer Tel HaShomer ( he, תֵּל הַשּׁוֹמֵר, ''lit.'' Hill of the Guardsman) or Kiryat Krinitzi is a neighborhood in Ramat Gan, Israel. It is bordered to the north by Kiryat Ono, to the east by Yehud, and to the south by Or Yehuda. A major Isr ...
. * Battle of
Tantura Tantura ( ar, الطنطورة, ''al-Tantura'', lit. ''The Peak''; Hebrew and Phoenician: דור, ''Dor'') was a Palestinian Arab fishing village located northwest of Zikhron Ya'akov on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Near the village, lies ...
. * Attempt to conqueror
Iraq al-Manshiyya Iraq al-Manshiyya ( ar, عراق المنشية) was a Palestinian Arab village located 32 km northeast of Gaza City. The village contained two mosques and a shrine for Shaykh Ahmad al-Arayni. It was depopulated after the 1948 Arab-Israeli Wa ...
in the Faluja pocket. The company orders had been to conqueror Tel Sheikh Ahmad Eirni (An Antiquities Tel), but during the battle an Egyptian force outflanked the company and destroyed it. The battle plan was for the company to take the Tel while the rest of the 33rd battalion would take over the village, while the 32nd battalion would provide support and a company from the 35th will close the path to the bridge. On the morning of the 28th the company charged the Tel while the Egyptian forces defended using machine guns and heavy artillery, The third company was not aware that due to muddy terrain (the previous two days had heavy rain) the 35th battalion was late in one hour and retreated back. An Egyptian armored machine with Bern machine guns had been able to pass and outflank the third company.


Bodies exhumation

Following the failure to conquer
Tel Erani Tel Erani ( he, תל עירני) or Tell esh-Sheikh Ahmed el-ʿAreini ( ar, تل الشيخ أحمد العريني) is a multi-period archaeological site on the outskirts of Kiryat Gat in the Southern District of Israel. It is also known by the n ...
north of
Iraq al-Manshiyya Iraq al-Manshiyya ( ar, عراق المنشية) was a Palestinian Arab village located 32 km northeast of Gaza City. The village contained two mosques and a shrine for Shaykh Ahmad al-Arayni. It was depopulated after the 1948 Arab-Israeli Wa ...
during operation Hisul the bodies of the fallen soldiers had been buried in four mass graves by the Egyptian forces. Rabbi Goren had been sent to identify the burial site and exhumation. According to a report by ''
Davar ''Davar'' ( he, דבר, lit. ''Word'') was a Hebrew-language daily newspaper published in the British Mandate of Palestine and Israel between 1925 and May 1996. It was relaunched in 2016, under the name ''Davar Rishon'' as an online outlet by th ...
'', the Rabbi received honorable military treatment from the Egyptian forces and the Egyptian forces assisted in the exhumation process.


In popular culture

* During 2016, a Headstart project to fund a movie about the company had made. a Movie named "The story of the religious company" had been made. * A memorial had been built in Kiryat Gat. A yearly ceremony is held in the city of
Kiryat Gat Kiryat Gat, also spelled Qiryat Gat ( he, קִרְיַת גַּת), is a city in the Southern District of Israel. It lies south of Tel Aviv, north of Beersheba, and from Jerusalem. In it had a population of . The city hosts one of the most a ...
to commemorate them. * The
Bnei Akiva Bnei Akiva ( he, בְּנֵי עֲקִיבָא, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929. History B ...
youth movement designed a hiking trip to commemorate the fallen soldiers.http://bneiakiva.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/masa-morasha.pdf *
Yehuda Amichai Yehuda Amichai ( he, יהודה עמיחי; born Ludwig Pfeuffer 3 May 1924 – 22 September 2000) was an Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew in modern times. Amichai was awarded the 1957 Shlonsky Prize, the ...
wrote a song about the battle in the Tel Gat song.


References


External links


Battle description in the givati alumini
{{Arab–Israeli conflict Arab-Israeli War, 1948 1948 Arab–Israeli War Arab-Israeli War, 1948 Battles and operations of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Military units and formations of Israel