NAME: Prezant, Moshe
LEHI ALIAS: Boaz
DATE OF BIRTH: 1934
DATE OF DEATH: October 21, 2020
Moshe was born in 1934 to Yaakov Shmuel and Malka Schumer, in Zakarpattia (now part of Ukraine, then part of Czechoslovakia), oldest of four children. The family was religious, traditional and Zionist. Yaakov Shmuel made aliyah in 1935, while the mother Malka and their four children did so in 1937.
Moshe had a brother and two sisters, all of whom were Lehi members. His sister Leah (Ariella) was killed when the Lehi armory in Jerusalem blew up. His brother Tzvi was arrested in March 1946 by the British for gun possession. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to three years in prison, in Jaffa and the Jerusalem Central Prison. His sister Shoshana was Natan Yellin-Mor’s secretary for a time.
Moshe and his family lived for many years on Kishon Street in South Tel Aviv. He studied in the Moriah Religious School and the Geula High School. He joined the Bnei Akiva youth movement; afterwards, he joined Brit Hashmona’im.
In March 1947, Hisia Shapira recruited him into Lehi. Like all youths, he put up posters, trained with weapons and attended ideological courses. He learned of his sister’s death in Jerusalem in 1948, while he was in the Lehi camp at Sheikh Munis. Because of his youth, he could not enlist alongside everyone else and had to finish his high school studies first. He then enlisted and became a wireless operator in the 4th Brigade. After the Bernadotte assassination, he was arrested while putting up posters and suspected of being an underground member.
When he finished his service, he joined the family business, the Prima Company, manufactures of children’s and patio furniture.
In 1966, he married Dalia Bahbout. They had three daughters and six grandchildren.
In 1986, the family business closed. Moshe moved on to the Yad Shniya Bookstore in Tel Aviv.
