Shimon Erem, who fought for Israel in four wars and was recognized as the “patriarch” of the Israeli community in Los Angeles, has died.

Erem died May 27 in Los Angeles after a prolonged struggle with cancer. He was 90 years old.

He was born Shimon Kazarnofsky in Kaunus, Lithuania in 1922 and was three years old when his parents immigrated to Palestine.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Following his 1970 marriage to his second wife Danielle, a Los Angeles resident, Erem moved to the United States and subsequently devoted most of his time and energy to developing Christian support for Israel in America and Europe. He founded the Israel Christian Nexus/Alliance for Jerusalem which honored him on his birthday last year.

During World War II, Erem joined the Jewish Brigade of the British army and was decorated four times for bravery under fire. Stationed in Italy at the end of the war, he took a leading role in underground operations, which included hunting down prominent Nazis and smuggling refugees and arms into Palestine.

With the outbreak of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion asked Erem to help organize the first Officers School for the nation’s armed forces.

He also fought as a battalion commander at Latrun to open the road to Jerusalem and against Egyptian forces in the south and was wounded on both fronts.

Subsequently, Erem led troops as brigade commander in the Sinai campaign of 1956, as commander of Special Forces in the Six Day War of 1967, and returned to Israel to serve in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

He received numerous citations and decorations throughout his military career and retired from the Israeli army with the rank of brigadier general.

In Los Angeles, Erem worked as an independent property manager, according to his wife of 41 years, but spent the bulk of his time and energy as a volunteer advocate for Israel and the Jewish community.

Early on, he assumed leadership positions, on a local and national level, for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and served as head of the Center for Strategic Studies West.

Recognizing the vital role the Christian community, particularly evangelical Christians, could play in mobilizing support for Israel, Erem came to focus his major effort in serving as the unofficial Israeli ambassador to the Christian world.He organized mass rallies of thousands of pro-Israel Christians, who signed pledges to oppose anti-Semitism, and huge receptions for visiting Israeli leaders.

He founded the Israel Christian Nexus in 2002, which, in a mission statement, cited as a key goal to alert the democracies “to the worldwide threat posed by fundamentalist Islam to our shared Judeo-Christian values.”

A longtime friend, Haim Linder, recalled attending one meeting in which Erem stood up and declared, “Every morning when I get up, the first thing I ask myself, ‘What can I do to help Israel today?’”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount