NAME: Szklarczyk (née Schneerson), Yehudit

LEHI ALIAS: Sarah

DATE OF BIRTH: 1921

Yehudit was born in 1921 in Hebron to a religious and traditional family which made aliyah in the late 18th century, when Habad Hassidim first came to the country. In 1929, after the massacre of Jews by Arabs in Hebron, the British removed the rest of the families from the city. Her family moved to Jerusalem. She studied at the Lamelle School and then Mizrahi Teachers Seminary. Her father, Yehuda Leib “Saba” Schneerson, was active in the Revisionist Movement from the early 1930s, as well as in Brit HaBiryonim. He was arrested in Acre. Her mother, Bilhah Rachel Menucha née Diament, was also a member of the Schneerson family on her mother’s side. The father was a great influence on the family, and Yehudit and her two sisters were Beitar members in their youth. Once the riots broke out in 1936, they joined the IZL. Her studies at the seminary were interrupted often by her underground activity, and only her commitment and passion allowed her to overcome this obstacle.

Her commander, Shoshana Raziel, ordered her to attack an Arab doctor who was collaborating with the gangs. Her job was to bring the weapons and to dispose of them afterwards. Ultimately, the operation was never carried out due to intelligence failures.

This was perilous, difficult time. Her father was often in prison. In 1938, she was told that the CID was following her and her sister, which forced her to leave Jerusalem for some time.

After the split, she joined Lehi naturally, as her father was one of the first supporters and close friends of Yair. She was a youth instructor, as well as the secretary and communications officer for Eliyahu Amikam. In the planning for the Arab Bank robbery in Jerusalem, she volunteered her sister’s apartment (without her sister’s knowledge) as a place to sew British Police uniforms which they needed for the operation. She was also the courier for the Jerusalem chapter supervisor, Yitzhak “Shimon” Zellnick, and she would bring weapons and other materials to Tel Aviv and back. Yehudit was even the first newsreader on Lehi’s makeshift radio station, in a ramshackle building in Tel Aviv.

In December 1941, she married Aryeh Szklarczyk, a Palestine Police officer who worked for the Jewish Agency. She then stopped her underground activity. Her father was arrested again after Yair’s murder. Yehudit was also arrested and accused of being the Lehi radio newsreader, apparently due to informers. Her husband the policeman secured her release.

She worked in accounting for the Ministry of Transportation until her retirement in 1981. Afterwards she continued to work for the Nature Authority, until she fully retired in 1989. She lives in Jerusalem and has two sons.