Mordechai Alkahi

Mordechai Alkahi (March 10, 1925–April 16, 1947) was a member of the Irgun and one of the Olei Hagardom, the Jewish underground fighters executed by the British authorities in Mandatory Palestine. Born into a poor family in Petah Tikva, he became a notable athlete before joining the underground at the age of 18. He took part in operations against British installations and communications, was captured during the operation later known as the Night of the Beatings, and was sentenced to death by a military court. His execution, alongside those of Dov Gruner, Yehiel Dresner, and Eliezer Kashani, shocked the Yishuv and Jewish communities abroad. His life and death became part of the story through which Israelis remembered the struggle for Jewish independence.

Childhood, Family, and Sport

Alkahi was born in Petah Tikva to Ora and Avraham Alkahi. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Turkey, and the family faced severe economic hardship. As a child, he left school in order to help support his household. Sport offered him a demanding and disciplined environment in which he could develop his abilities and build strong ties with other young people.

He joined the Maccabi youth movement and excelled particularly in swimming. In 1941, representing Maccabi Avshalom, he won first place in a national competition. His athletic achievement reflected qualities that would later characterize his underground activity: physical endurance, discipline, persistence, and the ability to work as part of a team.

Joining the Irgun

In late 1943, at the age of 18, Alkahi joined the Irgun with other young people from Petah Tikva. After completing military training, he entered the organization’s Combat Corps. He continued to work during the day and participated in underground operations at night. His activities took place during a period in which the Jewish community in Palestine confronted British policies affecting immigration, settlement, security, and the possibility of building an independent Jewish state.

Alkahi’s first operation was an attack on the British police fort at Qalqilya, part of a series of attacks on Tegart forts. The operation failed after the police detected the attackers and opened heavy fire, but Alkahi displayed courage in helping evacuate the wounded. He later took part in sabotage operations against telephone lines and railways, as well as raids to obtain weapons and ammunition from British camps in Netanya, Tel Aviv, and Rosh HaAyin.

On April 23, 1946, he participated in a raid on the Ramat Gan police station, during which a large quantity of weapons and ammunition was seized. Two Irgun fighters were killed in the operation, and Dov Gruner was captured. Alkahi did not know then that Gruner, later sentenced to death, would share a death-row cell with him and ascend the gallows alongside him.

The Night of the Beatings, Arrest, and Trial

On December 29, 1946, Alkahi took part in an Irgun operation that became known as the Night of the Beatings. It was planned as retaliation for the flogging of Benjamin Kimhi, an Irgun member sentenced by a British military court to imprisonment and lashes. Alkahi’s team included Eliezer Kashani, Yehiel Dresner, Haim Golevsky, and Avraham Mizrahi.

Near the Lod–Beit Dagan junction, close to the village of Wilhelma, their car encountered a British roadblock. The police opened fire, and Avraham Mizrahi, who was driving, died of his wounds. Alkahi and the three surviving members of the team were captured while carrying whips. They were taken to a nearby military camp, where they were interrogated for approximately 20 hours and subjected to beatings and humiliation. After five days, they were transferred to the Central Prison in Jerusalem.

On February 10, 1947, the four men were tried by a military court. They refused to recognize the court’s authority and did not participate in the proceedings. During the defense stage, Alkahi made a defiant statement: “They will not break our spirit. We will know how to die with honor, as befits Hebrews.” Alkahi, Kashani, and Dresner were sentenced to death by hanging. Golevsky, who was 17, was sentenced to life imprisonment because British law did not permit his execution at that age.

After the sentences were announced, the four men stood and sang “Hatikvah.” They were returned to the Central Prison in Jerusalem, where they joined Dov Gruner. Appeals for clemency were submitted to the High Commissioner by institutions and public figures in the Yishuv, and the municipality of Petah Tikva organized a petition on behalf of its sons. Alkahi and his fellow condemned men, however, issued a public appeal asking that the clemency campaign be halted. They regarded such appeals as humiliating and as a sign of national subservience. In their view, they were prisoners of war, and their refusal to plead for mercy formed part of their stand for the dignity and independence of the Jewish people in Palestine.

Execution and Burial in Safed

On April 15, 1947, Alkahi, Gruner, Dresner, and Kashani were secretly transferred from Jerusalem Central Prison to Acre Prison. In the early hours of April 16, 1947, 26 Nisan 5707, the four men were hanged without advance notice and without an opportunity to say farewell to their families. Their request that a rabbi be brought to them was not granted. Each man went to the gallows singing “Hatikvah,” and Jewish prisoners in the other cells joined the song. Alkahi was the second to be executed. He was 22 years old.

The British authorities transported the bodies to Safed in a convoy of tanks and armored cars. The families and the local chevra kadisha were not informed, and the authorities ignored the men’s request to be buried in Rosh Pinna near the grave of Shlomo Ben-Yosef, the first of the Olei Hagardom. News of the executions was broadcast at seven in the morning, and a curfew was imposed across the country. Despite the curfew and heavy rain, hundreds of Jews reached the cemetery in Safed. The four men were buried beside victims of the Arab riots of 1929 and 1936–1939.

The executions caused profound shock in the Yishuv. Jewish communities around the world condemned them, and American priests organized memorial gatherings. British guards remained at the graves for months in order to prevent Irgun members from exhuming the bodies and transferring them to Rosh Pinna in accordance with the men’s wishes.

Commemoration and Enduring Memory

Streets in Tel Aviv–Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Beersheba bear Alkahi’s name. A monument to seven of the Olei Hagardom was erected in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Safed. In 1982, Israel Post issued a commemorative stamp sheet titled “Royal Martyrs in the Generation of Revival.” One of the stamps honored Alkahi. His portrait was designed by Ruth Beckman-Malka, and the sheet was designed by Aryeh Glazer.

His commemoration rests not only on the manner of his death but also on the course of his short life. He was a young man from a poor family who left school to help support his household, a successful athlete, a worker, and an underground fighter. His story therefore connects the private pressures of life in the Yishuv with the collective struggle that shaped the road to Israeli independence.

Why Mordechai Alkahi Belongs in Moreshet

Mordechai Alkahi merits inclusion in Moreshet because his story links the everyday life of the Jewish community in Palestine with the political and military struggle that preceded the establishment of Israel. He was not merely a symbol created after his death. In his brief life, he supported his family, excelled in sport, joined the Irgun, participated in underground operations, and repeatedly placed himself in danger. His conduct before the British court and his ascent to the gallows while singing “Hatikvah” became one of the formative images of Israeli national memory.

The streets, monument, and postage stamp commemorating him show how his personal story entered public space and collective remembrance. Together with Dov Gruner, Yehiel Dresner, and Eliezer Kashani, Alkahi represents both the human cost of the Mandate-era struggle and the way an individual life can become part of a people’s historical consciousness. For Moreshet.com, preserving his story means recording more than the execution itself: it means remembering his social background, his athletic achievement, his underground activity, and the connections between community responsibility, courage, and Jewish sovereignty.