Shlomo Shamir (; 15 June 1915 – 19 May 2009) was the third Commander of the

Israeli Navy The Israeli Navy (, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'', ; ) is the Israel Defense Forces#Arms, naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in the Mediterranean Sea theater as well as the Gulf of Eilat and the Red Sea th ...

(1949–1950), and the first

Commander to receive the rank of

Aluf ( or "first/leader of a group" in Biblical Hebrew) is a senior military rank in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for officers who in other countries would have the rank of general, air marshal, or admiral. In addition to the ''aluf'' rank, fo ...

. He was the third Commander of the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

(1950–1951).

Biography

Shlomo Shamir was born Shlomo Rabinowitch, in

Berdychiv Berdychiv (, ) is a historic city in Zhytomyr Oblast, northern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Berdychiv Raion within the oblast. It is south of the administrative center of the oblast, Zhytomyr. Its population is approximat ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. He was taken to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

in 1925. In 1929 he joined the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

and was instrumental in smuggling weapons and illegal Jewish immigrants into Palestine during the time of the British Mandate and the

White Paper of 1939 The White Paper of 1939Occasionally also known as the MacDonald White Paper (e.g. Caplan, 2015, p.117) after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, who presided over its creation. was a policy paper issued by the British governmen ...

. In 1940 he received his pilot license, and in the same year he joined the British Army's infantry in order to fight the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. In 1944 upon the establishment of the Jewish Brigade he was appointed Internal Commander of the Brigade on behalf of the Haganah and the Jewish Institution in Palestine. In 1946 he was discharged from the British military with the rank of major. In 1948 he was ordered by Prime Minister

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

to establish the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade in the fight to conquer Latrun so as to open the road to Jerusalem. He commanded over creating the Burma Road. At the end of the 1947–1949 Palestine war he was offered to be appointed as the Chief of the General Staff, but he refused. Instead he served other capacities, eventually becoming the second Commander of the

in December 1949. He helped build the small Israeli Navy by purchasing a new

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

and advanced

torpedo boats A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

. In 1950, he was replaced as Commander of the Israeli Navy by Mordechai Limon and became the third Commander of the

. Under his leadership, the Israeli Air Defense Network was created, and the Hatzor Israeli Air Force Base built. In August 1951, he handed command of the Air Force over to Haim Laskov and retired from the Israel Defence Forces. In civilian life, Shamir established Israel's Phosphate mines and headed Israel's land Authorities. He received a master's degree in Social Sciences from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

and is a graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

AMP Program of 1970. On 19 May 2009 Shamir died in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

at the age of 93, leaving his daughter Yael, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shamir, Shlomo 1915 births 2009 deaths People from Berdychiv Jews from the Russian Empire Soviet Jews Ukrainian Jews Israeli Jews Israeli Navy generals Israeli Air Force generals Soviet emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Israeli people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Harvard University alumni Tel Aviv University alumni Jewish Brigade personnel Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery