Yad Mordechai (Hebrew: יד מרדכי - Memorial of Mordechai) is a kibbutz located 10 km south of Ashkelon, Israel. The kibbutz was named for Mordechai Anielewicz (who died fighting the Nazis while being the commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto), by Hasomer Hatzair survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the kibbutz sustained attacks by Egypt. Today the kibbutz has about 700 inhabitants. In the kibbutz, there is a giant statue of Anilewicz clutching a grenade, set on a hilltop next to the kibbutz's water tower destroyed by the Egyptians in 1948. The kibbutz has constructed a museum memorizing both Anielewicz and his fighting in the Ghetto, and also the attacks sustained by the kibbutz. There is a reconstruction scene of bitter fighting during the War of Independence. Life-sized, blackened cut-outs with helmets and rifles represent the advancing Egyptians, reinforced with tanks set around the hill. Obsolete weapons of the defenders are in position in slit trenches on the hill. Recorded explanations of the battle, the retreat of the heavily outnumbered Israelis, and the eventual recapture of the kibbutz six months later, are given in all major languages.
