JERUSALEM, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Yitzhak Aharonovitch, who captained the Jewish refugee ship Exodus 1947, initially denied entry to Palestine, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 86.
"Ike was a dreamer and a fighter. He was part of a generation that lived history both in the past in the present," his brother, Deddy, told Ynetnews.com.
No cause of death was reported.
Aharonovitch was born in Danzig, Poland, in 1923 and arrived in what is now Israel in 1932. In 1947, he was skipper of the Exodus 1947, which left France with 4,554 passengers bound for then-British controlled Palestine. Britain's Royal Navy seized the ship and sent all the passengers, most of them Holocaust survivors, back to Europe.
The episode garnered widespread media coverage, pushing the British to reconsider its stance. In 1949, Britain recognized the state of Israel, a year after its independence.
Aharonovitch, whose funeral will be held Friday at the cemetery on Kibbutz Givat Chaim, is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and a great-grandson.
