Havat Yair
Terror Attack Place:
Rechavia Jerusalem
Commemoration Site:
Yakir
Area:
Judaia and Sameria
Type:
Lookout
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On May 6th,1947 in the afternoon, the 18-year-old boy Alexander Rubovitz said at home that he was going to get material from a friend, went out into the street and has not returned since.
Later, it was learned that the boy had been caught putting up pro-Lehi leaflets in the Rehavia neighborhood. The worried family contacted the police and a few days later published his picture publicly and appealed to the public to help in efforts to find him. Moshe Cheshin, a thirteen-and-a-half-year-old yeshiva student, later said that he and his friends were playing in the street and suddenly saw a man chasing a boy. The young men chased after them and witnessed a struggle between the two and Alexander's efforts to evade the man, until the man managed to drag the boy and push him into a car that arrived and stopped next to them. The search for the kidnapper led to Alexander Roy Farran, an army officer with the rank of captain who was seconded to the Israel Police and headed a group of British police officers who organized for an independent war against the Jewish tomorrow. Farran fled to Syria, returned and fled again, until he was finally extradited and put on trial before a British military court. He was accused of kidnapping and murdering Alexander, despite his complete identification and the many testimonies collected, was acquitted "for lack of evidence." Paran finally managed to escape to Britain. Lehi sent him a book from a trap, and his brother opened it and was killed. He eventually fled to Canada and became a respected citizen there.
The body of the murdered Alexander Rubovitz has not been found, and to this day no one knows where he is buried.
At the initiative of former Lehi members, a stone was placed in his memory at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, and the students of the state-religious school named after Rabbi Pardes planted a grove bearing his name. A street in the Talpiot Mizrahi neighborhood in Jerusalem also bears his name. A memorial plaque was placed at the site of Alexander Rubovitz's kidnapping, Ussishkin Street at the corner of Keren Kayemet in Jerusalem.
Additional details can be found on the Wikipedia page in his memory
