Eliezer Halfin

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Eliezer Halfin was born on June 18, 1948, in Riga, which was then part of the USSR and is now Latvia. He was the only son of a father who tragically lost his first family to the Nazis in a Riga ghetto during World War II. Eliezer developed a passion for freestyle wrestling, competing for 11 years in the USSR where he achieved fourth place in the national youth division before making aliyah to Israel in 1969. As a member of the Israeli National Wrestling Team and Hapoel Tel Aviv, Eliezer's talent shone through when he secured third place in an international competition in Greece in 1972. That same year, he became an Israeli citizen, completed his army service, and began a promising career as a Volkswagen mechanic. Participating in the Munich Olympics 1972 marked the pinnacle of Eliezer Halfin's wrestling career and fulfilled his lifelong dream.