Saadia Bahat — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Sa'adiah Bahat was born in 1928 in Elytus in Lithuania. Miraculously, he survived the Holocaust (Vilna ghetto, Astonia and Stutthof concentration camps) and, at the beginning of 1946 he made aliyah to Israel via France; he was absorbed by Aliyat Hanoar into a farm in Petah Tiqva. In 1947 he joined the Palmach; at first he served at the Gezer training center but later he was seconded to the 5^th battalion in the Harel brigade and, among other duties, escorted the armored tanks to Jerusalem. He was injured during one of the battles and then trained as an officer. He continued as an officer, training soldiers and also fighting on the southern front.

After the War of Independence Bahat was released from the army and was one of the founders of Kvutzat Amelim at Tel Gezer; at the same time he studied engineering at the Technion (1952-1956). After he had completed his studies, he began working at Refael, where he worked until his retirement in 1993. For the 37 years he worked there he concentrated on research and development, was head of security projects and head engineer of land warfare. From 1973-75 he studied advanced engineering at MIT. He was awarded two prizes by Refael and the Israel Defense Prize.

 All his life he was interested in artwork beginning with wood etchings in the concentration camp during the Holocaust, continuing with workshops, art classes and sculpture.  Bahat spent three sabbaticals in America as a guest researcher at Stanford University while studying art there as well. In 1967 his first one-man exhibition was held in his hometown Kiryat Bialik. When sculpting, he uses different materials such as stone, wood and steel. In 1989 he was accepted to the Israeli Association of Artists and Sculptors.

When he retired, in 1993, he spent more time on his artwork. He held 26 one-man exhibitions in various places in Israel and abroad. He also participated in joint exhibitions in Israel, the U.S.A., Japan, France, Italy and Austria. 19 of his environmental sculptures can be seen at Stanford University, in Limassol, Cyprus, at Refael institutes and at other sites around the country. He won the Haifa municipality Herman Struk Award twice (1996, 2009), a commendation for his proposal for an international competition for the memorial Jerusalem in Lithuania (1990), third place in the International Symposium on Sculpture in Ma'alot –Tarshicha (1999) and a prize for lifetime achievements in Ferrara, Italy.

Translated from: Wikipedia