Reik, Havivah (Emma)

(1914–44)

   Parachutist heroine. At the age of twentyfive, Havivah Reik emigrated to Palestine from her native Slovakia and joined kibbutz Ma’anit. In 1944 she was one of four volunteers parachuted into Nazi-occupied Slovakia on a sabotage and intelligence mission. She was captured by the Germans while fighting with a group of Jewish partisans in the mountains, and executed. The kibbutz Lehavot Havivah and the research centre of Givat Havivah were named after her.