Fuchsman-Avieli Family

Moshe Fuchsman was born in 1895 to Mordechia and Chaya, in Beserbia, in the Russian Empire. In the beginning of the 1920's the family left Russia and moved to Turkey. On land bought by the YKA organization and wealthy Jews, including Mordechai Fuchsman, they built a Jewish settlement called "Messila Chadasha" (The New Rail), 25km east of Kushta. The inhabitants made a living through agriculture. During WWI the Turkish government confiscated most of the manufacturing tools held by the Jews. Their financial situation deteriorated and became unbearable. During the war, Zionist activists who got trapped in Turkey, unable to return to Israel, lived in "Messila Chadasha". One of these activists was Moshe Shertok (Sharett). These people urged the settlers, who had lost their livelihood, to move to Israel. At the end of the war the family left Turkey and joined the Zionist Socialist pioneers settling in Israel. Moshe Fuchsman joined the pioneers of the third Aliyah in the Galilee and Emek Izrael. These pioneers wandered from place to place, in groups, depending on where they could find work and employment. In 1924 he married Miriam Vilchman whom he had met in Turkey when she stayed at "Messila Chadasha" on her way to Israel. Miriam Vilchman was born in 1898 in the Ukraine, to Moshe Elimelech and Slova. In 1913, at the age of 15, she made Aliyah, by herself, filled with Social – Zionist ideology. Upon her arrival she joined the Ha'almot settlement, near the Kinneret, which was directed by Chana Meizel. From there she moved to a number of other places. She spent some time working in the eye clinic of Dr. Ticho in Jerusalem, in the workmen's kitchen in Haifa and then returned to the Kinneret. She joined the Women's Worker's Union in their struggle for equal rights for women in the pioneering society. These demands and ways of implementing them were discussed in the worker's conference in 1922 in Haifa, in which Miriam participated. In a group photograph you can clearly identify the leaders of the organization, the women of the second Aliyah: Mina Shochet, Rachel Yanait Ben Zvi, Miriam Beretz, Chana Meizel and Ada Fishman Meimon, as well as Golda Meir who arrived in Israel one year before, in the third Aliyah. After their marriage, Miriam and Moshe Fuchsman moved to Mahanaim. In January 1925 their first son, Alik (Elimelech) was born. They moved around from place to place in the Jezreel Valley, finally settling in Kibbutz Ein Harod. In 1926 their daughter, Chayuska (Chaya) was born. They continued to roam southwards until arriving in Petach Tikvah. Moshe worked in agriculture. In 1930 they joined a group of people from the Shomer and Tel Hai who were organizing a communal living settlement of workers on the lands of Be'er Tuvia which had been abandoned some 6 months earlier due to the pogroms of 1924. The settlers moved in on the 11th day of the month of Adar, because of its symbolic importance- the day of the fall of Tel Hai. Moshe and Miriam established a farm that specialized in dairy production. Their third son, Duda (David), who was born in February 1934 continued in their footsteps in the Moshav as have some of their grandchildren. Alik (Elimelech), the eldest son of Miriam and Moshe joined the national efforts pioneered by his parents, and joined the Palmach in 1942. In 1943 he responded to the call of the leaders of the Jewish settlement and joined the "Buffs" unit in the British infantry. In September the "Buffs", the Jewish volunteers from the settlement, joined together with the volunteers in the Jewish Brigade. In the beginning of1945, after a long period of training in Egypt and Italy, Alik and his friends from the Third Battalion, arrived to the Northern Italian front where he was a machine gunner. Alik photographed the Jewish Brigade and their activities in Egypt and throughout Europe. In 1946 the soldiers from the Jewish Brigade returned to Israel and were released from the British army. Alik joined the group of soldiers who had served in the Jewish Brigade who were organizing agricultural settlements in conjunction with the Moshav organization. Their training took place in Shimrom, north of Nahalal. In 1947 he left the training and returned to Be'er Tuvia. Due to an accident with a British military vehicle and long-term hospitalization he was unable to join the field unit of the Haganah. He therefore joined the guard unit in Be'er Tuvia. This unit was part of the Regional Guard Unit under the auspices of the National Guard Force. In early May 1948, during the operation to capture the Arab villages near Be'er Tuvia, the Palmach was joined as a patrol unit with the 53rd battalion of Givati. Upon the completion of the operation, in the latter half of the same month, the unit moved to Negba where they planned an attack to capture the Iraq-Suadin Police. On May 21st, 6 days after the establishment of the State of Israel, Alik was killed. He was struck by a bomb dropped from an Egyptian airplane while he was firing Bren anti-aircraft missiles. Four others were killed at the same time, including the commander of Negba. There are three family members who are named after Alik. Many of the family photographs were taken by him. In 1950, two years after his death, his mother Miriam, passed away. Moshe passed away in 1971. Chaya (Chayuska), the daughter of Moshe and Miriam Fuchsman married Moshe Hober in 1947. They settled in Kfar Avraham and made their living through agriculture and by designing and building agricultural machines. They had three children: Mira, Eli and Avi. Eli Hober is one of the founders of Kibbutz El-Rom in the Golan Heights. He passed away in September 2015 at the age of 61. At the time of this writing, Chaya has five grandchildren and one great-grandchild- the grandchild of Eli Hober. After a short military service in Golani, because of family circumstances, Duda (David), their third son, continued to run the family farm in Be'er Tuvia. As part of his reserve duty he joined a scouting group and served in all the wars of Israel, until the 1980's: Sinai Operation, the Six Day War, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War and the First Lebanese War. In the 1980's Duda was the head of the Administration of the Moshav Be'er Tuvia. Later he directed 'Hachaklait'- the National Organization for Veterinary Services and Insurance of Livestock in the Settlements. On November 29, 1959 Duda and Amalia Kramer were married. She too is a resident of Be'er Tuvia, born in 1935. Her father, Shmaya Kramer was murdered in the entrance to Tel Aviv by Arab marauders in the beginning of the pogroms in 1936. In the mid 1950's, after completing her army service at the Tel Nof Air Force Base, Amalia volunteered with new immigrants in the Western Galilee and in the vicinity of Jerusalem, over the course of a number of years. During the Yom Kippur War and the first Lebanese War she bore the responsibility of the work on their farm. Amalia and Duda raised three sons: Shmaya, named after his grandfather, Alik, named after his uncle, who continues to farm the land in the Moshav and Dror. Amalia passed away prematurely, in 1988. At the time of writing this, Duda and Amalia have 7 grandchildren. [To read the family history of Amalia, before her marriage, see the Shmaya Kramer Collection, Devorah and Aharon (Bida) Ilan.] The Fuchsman-Aviali family history is intertwined with the development of the Radical Social Zionist Movement and the agricultural settlement of Israel, from the 1920's until today. A strong ideological commitment and a striving to fulfill the Zionist dream, led Moshe and Miriam Fuchsman, after extensive pioneering activities throughout the country, to settle in the agricultural settlement Be'er Tuvia, Their children have continued in their footsteps, and so have their grandchildren. September 2015 Read more