British Israeli Independence War veteran Sidney Lightman dies at 100

Sidney Lightman, one of the last British members of Machal, the illustrious band of foreign volunteers who helped to secure Israel’s independence, has died at the age of 100.

The former assistant editor of the Jewish Chronicle was a gifted linguist who spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, German and French and continued to work as a translator well into his late 90s.

Having served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, he was a management trainee with a cigarette company when Israel declared independence in 1948.

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“My brother and I had been imbued by our parents with a strong Jewish consciousness— and even if we had not been, some of our non-Jewish schoolmates and, later, fellow servicemen, did not let us forget that we were Jews. I decided to volunteer for Israel.”