Baruch Katinka

Baruch Katinka (Hebrew: ברוך קטינקא; March 19, 1887 – April 18, 1965) was a Jewish engineer and building contractor active in Ottoman Palestine, Mandatory Palestine, and the State of Israel. He trained as an engineer in Germany before immigrating to Ottoman Palestine in 1908. During World War I, he served in the Ottoman Army as chief technical manager of the Hejaz railway. In 1918, he invented an "air-propelled railcar" driven by an aircraft engine and propeller to transport German soldiers quickly to Haifa Port. As a Haganah defense coordinator in Jerusalem's Talpiot neighborhood, he organized the evacuation of residents, including the writer S.Y. Agnon, during the 1929 Palestine riots. In later years, he worked as a building contractor, constructing Jerusalem landmarks including the Palace Hotel, where he hid weapons and microphones for the Haganah, the Jerusalem YMCA, and the city's main post office. He published a memoir in 1964.