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Lou Lenart | Israeli air force pioneer

Lou Lenart, 94, an American hailed in Israeli headlines as "the man who saved Tel Aviv," died Monday at his home in Ra'anana, Israel. He had congestive heart failure, his Los Angeles publicist, Edward Lozzi, said.

Lou Lenart, 94, an American hailed in Israeli headlines as "the man who saved Tel Aviv," died Monday at his home in Ra'anana, Israel. He had congestive heart failure, his Los Angeles publicist, Edward Lozzi, said.

Growing up in the mining town of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Mr. Lenart endured beating after beating because he was Jewish. After he took a Charles Atlas bodybuilding course, he joined the Marines and fought in the Pacific. A few years later, he smuggled warplanes into Israel, helped found the new state's tiny air force, and led an attack on more than 10,000 Egyptian troops who had advanced to a bridge within 16 miles of Israel's biggest city.

"It was the most important moment of my life, and I was born to be there at that precise moment in history," he told the Jerusalem Post in 2012. "I was the luckiest man in the world that my destiny brought me to that precise moment to be able to contribute to Israel's survival."

In a long, swashbuckling career, Mr. Lenart airlifted thousands of Jewish refugees from Iraq to Israel, served as a pilot for El Al airline, worked as general manager for basketball's Clippers when they were in San Diego, and helped produce Hollywood films shot in Israel.

He is featured in Above and Beyond, Nancy Spielberg's 2014 documentary about Jewish pilots from the United States who established Israel's air defenses. - L.A. Times