FISHL VERBER

FISHL VERBER (September 1897-October 27, 1957)

            He was born in Khorostkov (Khorostkiv), eastern Galicia.  Until age fourteen he studied with local elementary school teachers, later in a yeshiva in Chortkov (Chortkiv).  At age seventeen he moved to Czernowitz where he turned his attention to secular subjects.  Duty to military service, he had to interrupt his studies, but later through self-study he acquired considerably more knowledge.  He was a leader in Hitaḥdut (“union” of young Zionists), and later in the united Hitaḥdut Labor Zionist party in eastern Galicia.  Over the years 1926-1934, he was general secretary of the party.  He was also active in the Palestina-Amt (Palestine office) and the Merkaz Heḥaluts (The pioneer center) in Lemberg.  He began writing in 1926 for Folk un land (People and country) in Warsaw and Lodz, and later for the weekly Dos fraye vort (The free word), of which he was also editor.  He made aliya to Israel in 1934.  He was a member of the workers’ council in Rishon Lezion, later in Petaḥ Tikva until the end of 1948.  He also published articles in Hapoel hatsair (Youth Zionist).  He was active at the Agricultural Center.  He died in Ramatayim, Israel.

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