Meir Feinstein

Meir Feinstein (Hebrew: מאיר פיינשטיין‎‎; October 5, 1927 - April 21, 1947) was an Irgun member in pre-state Mandatory Palestine, during the Jewish insurgency in Palestine. Feinstein, who was sentenced to death by the British authorities, is remembered for his suicide together with Moshe Barazani, another Jewish underground fighter under sentence of death; the two killed themselves embracing each other with a live grenade lodged between them hours before their scheduled hangings. He is memorialized in Israel today as one of 12 Olei Hagardom.

Meir Feinstein was born in the Old City of Jerusalem. His parents, Bela and Eliezer, immigrated from Brisk. As a boy, he received a religious education; he studied at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva for ten years, and was a disciple of Rabbi Aryeh Levin. During his childhood, his father died, and he had to work to help support the family. He worked in a series jobs in Jerusalem, in Ramatayim, and in the kibbutzim of Negba and Givat HaShlosha.

While at Givat HaShlosha, Feinstein joined the Haganah. During his military training, Feinstein, an aspiring writer, educated himself in secular subjects with books sent to him by his brother from Jerusalem.

In 1944, during World War II, after rumors of the Holocaust began spreading, Feinstein enlisted in the British Army. Although only 16 at the time, he enlisted using a forged birth certificate claiming he was 20. Feinstein was accepted and served for two and a half years in the Royal Engineers, during which he was stationed in Palestine, Alexandria, and Beirut. He was discharged from the British Army in August 1946.

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