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My name is Dubi Feinstein (a.k.a. David Dov Yehuda Feinstein). I live in Houston, Texas in the USA. I was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1954, more than seven years after the heroic death of my uncle Meir Feinstein. He was my father's youngest brother. Growing up in Meir's shadow, I was always intrigued with how he was able to demonstrate such mature speeches at his trial, and express intense love for our Jewish country. In this memorial site, my intention is to tell the story of my uncle based on the stories of my family and friends, and from the vast body of related literature in Hebrew that is not readily accessible to the English-speaking public. As I found myself translating Hebrew materials for the sake of my own children and grandchildren who live in the U.S.A., I realized that my work may provide the means for many other people to learn about the remarkable heroic tale of Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani.

My late father, Binyamin (Benjamin) Feinstein, was Meir's oldest brother. Actually, my grandfather Eliezer Feinstein had other children from his first wife, but after she passed away, he married my grandmother, Bella Feinstein. My father was born in 1921 in their house in the old city of Jerusalem. My father had a sister, Aliza, and two brothers, Zvi and Meir. Meir, who was the youngest, was born on July 1929.

Binyamin Feinstein married my mother, Chaya Ettle from the Bash family, who is now 89 years old and living in Jerusalem. My older brother, Eliezer Feinstein was born in 1952 and my younger sister Bella Drora (now Bella Drora Keret) was born in 1964. Both Eliezer, Bella and their families live in Jerusalem.

Our father carried the terrible pain of losing his youngest brother like a weight on his shoulders throughout his life. He shared his stories with all three of us, and in 1967 he self-published his novel "Yedidya Hatalgi" which provides a unique perspective into the life and death of Meir. I remember helping my father in the proof-reading of this book. I am preparing an English translation of several chapters of “Yedidya Hatalgi” to be published in this site. This is one of the important goals of this site - to bring my late father’s own testimony to the English-speaking public.

Since the untimely death of my father in 1985, my older brother, Eliezer, took on the tremendous responsibility of representing the Feinstein family in all the events commemorating Meir Feinstein. Over the years, Eliezer accumulated lots of information about our uncle, and he has been interviewed by a vast array of Israeli newspapers regarding various aspects of the story. On each anniversary of Meir's death, Eliezer speaks at the various ceremonies, and he goes to the cemetery on Mount Olives where he recites the traditional Hebrew prayer called the Kaddish prayer for our uncle. We have a related video on this site.

In 2007, Eliezer received the Bible that Meir gave to the "good jailer", Thomas Henry Goodwin, before he sacrificed his life. Goodwin requested his family to return the Bible to Meir's family after his death. This story achieved wide publicity both in Israel and abroad. I have added a video of Eliezer's recent presentation about this story on this site.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Eliezer is one of my main sources of information about our uncle. As is often the case with historic accounts of this magnitude, there are some conflicting bits and pieces of information among the various versions of the story in the Hebrew literature. A good example is the determination of Meir's date of birth. Eliezer has spent a lot of time researching the literature, and I have benefited immensely from his insight and attention to details. That being said, I take full responsibility for all errors and omissions on this site.

When my now daughter-in-law, Emily Feinstein, was newly engaged to my son, Oren Feinstein, she joined our family on a trip to Israel, where we visited the Museum of the Underground Prisoners in Jerusalem. She was so impressed with the story of Meir Feinstein that she vowed to name her son (if she had one) in honor of Meir, and to write a novel about the story. In 2013, Emily and Oren were blessed with a beautiful son, Mayer Akiva Feinstein, who happened to be the first direct family member of Meir Feinstein who fulfilled his wish that a child will be named after him. Emily, who is a journalist and freelance writer, helps me in the editing of this web site, and we are working together on a historical nonfiction novel about Meir.

The naming ceremony of my grandson Mayer Akiva Feinstein after my uncle Meir Feinstein on July 4, 2013, in Houston, Texas, USA. Thus Meir's last request from his family to name a child after him was finally fulfilled. My father Binyamin Feinstein was unable to fulfill the request (and choose the name Meir for Eliezer or for me) because his father-in-law was named Meir. (Ashkenazi Jews cannot choose a child name identical to the name of a living member of the family).

My desire to learn more about my uncle has taken me on a journey, providing me the opportunity to meet the descendants and family members of some of the people that surrounded Meir, particularly his fiancée, Rachel Kramer-Rechtman, his comrade in arms and death, Moshe Barazani, and the "good jailer", Thomas Henry Goodwin. I document my new friends in this site.

The Main Contents of This Site

The Heroic Tale of Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani is clearly the main page of the site, and I suggest that everyone interested in the amazing heroism and patriotism of these two freedom fighters will start there.

The home page starts with a brief summary that quickly connects you to the The Heroic Tale of Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani. It also encapsulates numerous "starting boxes" for various topics, video presentations and discussions. As I am adding these "starting boxes" as I expand the site, frequent visitors can easily see what is new.

I bundled all the contents of the site into two sections, Topics section and Places, which are easily accessed from the main menu on each page. I suggest you click 'Topics' and 'Places' to review a short summary of what they include. Please note that each section contains much more pages than the few listed in the drop-down menus.

I have included an extensive Links page on the site. While most of the links are from sources written in English I included some links to Hebrew language sources. The Links page also includes various third party videos and a list of suggested books.

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