Yehezkel Green

Yehezkel Green was born in 1925 in Neve Shalom

Yehezkel Green was born on February 27, 1925, in the Neve Shalom neighborhood of Tel Aviv, the youngest of 4 children of Hania and Yitzhak Green. His grandfather and namesake was a leader of the Jewish community in Jaffa and one of the founders of Tel Aviv. His father was the first licensed pharmacist in Tel Aviv.

He studied at the Alliance school in Tel Aviv and then at a vocational school, where he excelled in metalwork and mechanics. He was drawn to the sea, built boats, sailed and fished, and even ferried passengers on the Yarkon. In 1945 he began working for the Electric Company.

Following his older brother Avraham, an athletics champion, he took up sailing, boxing, football and athletics. In May 1945 he won the national 200 meter title with a record of 23.0 seconds. In May 1948 he won gold in the 200 and 400 meters and silver in the 100 meters.

A Haganah member from his youth, he was arrested for about a month after the Black Sabbath of 1946. He served in the IDF's 8th Brigade and was killed on November 9, 1948, when his half-track was hit during the attack on the Iraq Suwaydan police fort. He was buried in Kfar Warburg, and a national athletics championship was held in his memory for many years.