Yitzchak "Ike" Aharonovitch, captain of the SS Exodus 1947, passed away Wednesday. He was 86 years old. The Exodus was the most famous of the pre-state sea voyages bringing immigrants to the Land of Israel in defiance of the embargo placed on Jewish immigration by the British occupation at the time.
Aharonovitch, who died after an extended illness, will be buried on Friday in the cemetery of Kibbutz Givat Chaim, in northern Israel. He is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and a great-grandson.
The German-born Aharonovitch made Aliyah (immigrated) to pre-state Israel with his family in 1932. After getting caught trying to sneak into Turkey to join the Red Army in its fight against Nazi Germany, Aharonovitch became a professional sailor back in Haifa. He then joined the efforts by the pre-state underground to bring Jewish immigrants to the Land of Israel from Nazi-besieged Europe, despite strict British quotas on Jewish immigration to what was then the Palestine Mandate.
Even after the end of World War II, the British occupiers of the Land of Israel maintained a strict limitation on the numbers of Jews let into the country. To fight this ongoing embargo, Aharonovitch captained a ship obtained in Maryland, U.S.A., that was ultimately renamed the SS Exodus 1947 by its 4,500 passengers, most of whom were Holocaust survivors. The ship was seized by the British Navy off the coast of Israel, a battle ensued in which three people were killed, and the vessel was returned to Europe. The dramatic confrontation between the British and Jewish Holocaust survivors attempting to set foot on their ancient homeland made headline news at the time. After Israel gained independence, the story of the Exodus eventually inspired a book by American writer Leon Uris and a film starring Paul Newman, both of which were named after the ship itself.
Within one year of the famed, and failed, attempt by the passengers of the Exodus to make Aliyah, over half of them continued their efforts to break the British embargo on immigrants and reach their homeland. Aharonovitch, too, went on to captain another large illegal immigration vessel dubbed Kibbutz Galuyot, "Ingathering of the Exiles".
After the War of Independence, Aharonovitch continued his pre-state vocation as a sailor. He eventually moved to Zichron Yaakov and built himself a house in the shape of ship.