Yosef Koriel and Malca nee Mizrachi

Yosef Koriel Yosef Koriel was born in Jerusalem in 1920 to Sarah Aroesti (born in the Old City) and Yehuda Koriel, a descendant of Jews who were expelled from Spain. The Koriel family came to the Land of Israel from Turkey at the end of the 1800s. Sarah and Yehuda Koriel lived in the Old City. They had three children, two daughters and a son: Zehava. Leah and Ben Zion (he died in childhood in 1915). Shortly before the outbreak of WWII Yehuda died of an illness. Sarah, the widow remarried a man named David Nachmias. They had one son, Yosef. David Nachmias turned out to be a drunk and an abusive husband. At the end of the war Sarah divorced him, with the help of her father, however the Beit Din decided that the child's father will get custody of the child. David took his son to Bethlehem to sell him to the nuns there. Fortunately a neighbor passed by and 'bought' the child from him and returned him to his mother. When he grew up Yosef took his mother's last name and had nothing to do with his father's family. In 1930 his sister Leah married Chaim Sweid, one of the founders of the city of Netanya. Yosef learned in the "Doresh Zion" talmud torah as a child. His family later left the Old City and moved to Nissim Bechar Street next to the Mahane Yehuda Market. Between 1936-1937 Yosef served in the Hagannah, first as a guard in the Mandate Police. During the War of Independence he served as a liason and participated in the battle in San Simon as well as guarding the convoys that drove up to Mt. Scopus. In 1944 Yosef married Malca Mizachi after having met her in the neighborhood playground in Mekor Baruch. They were married in the park. After they married they rented a house from an Arab landowner in the Tel Arza neighborhood in Jerusalem. They pre-paid their rent for two years, however about one month before the outbreak of the War of Independence they understood that the house was in a dangerous location. They fled the house and all their savings were lost. At the end of the war they were able to find a small apartment in a deserted house on Rashi Street. After the War of Independence Yosef started working in vaiours government jobs, including Director of Human Resources in the Ministry of Development. He continued working after he retired and ran the Maccabi Kupat Holim in Jerusalem. Malca and Yosef had three daughters: Michal (Ben Reuven) married with two children, living in the US; Talya (Ram) married with two children, a lawyer, living in Jerusalem; Einat, married with two children, living in Holland. Malca and Yosef lived to see their six grandchildren and even six great-grandchildren (from their daughter Talya). Yosef Koriel passed away in 2012 from Parkinsons. He was of sound mind until his death. Malca Koriel nee Mizrachi Malca was born in 1921 to Yitzchak Mizrachi and Rachel Algazi (born in Yemin Moshe). After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the family wandered and it seems that they settled in the city of Bandur and worked in trade. In 1798 Chacham Shlomo Mizrachi, a carpet and fur trader, sent his son, Eliyahu, to Eretz Yisrael. After a long journey Eliyahu arrived in Israel and went to live in the home of the Chief Rabbi, Yom Tov Algazi, in the Old City. Eliyahu married Malca Monstrali. In 1882 Yakov Mizrachi, the great-granchild of Eliyahu Mizrachi, and his wife Mazal (Parnas) left the Old City and moved to the Ohel Moshe neighborhood in Jerusalem. The couple had four children: a daughter Oro and three sons, Yitzchak, Avraham and Eliyahu. Yitzchak and Rachel, the parents of Malca, had six children: Yaakov, Malca, Miriam, Moyiz, Leon and Tamar. Today ( 2018) just Tamar (Algazi) is still alive. The family later moved to Yehuda Hamacabi Street in Mekor Baruch in Jerusalem. In her youth Malca was a memeber of the "Machanot Olim" Youth Group. The counselors were Rachel Schwartz (the mother of Ruth Dayan and Reuma Weizman) and Rachel Hameirit-Gorodesky. In later years Malca was a counselor in the playground next to her house in Mekor Baruch. This project was started by the American philanthropist Breta Gugenheimer, a member of the Hadssah Women's group, after her visit to Israel in 1925. The playgrounds ("The Gugenheimer Playgrounds") were built to serve the neighborhood children who used to roam the streets after school hours with no organized social activities. The project provided afternoon activities, sports activities, trips and especially a social framework for the children. The connection with Rachel Schwartz continued over the years and on her 90th birthday the 'children' were invited to celbrate with her and participate in the occasion: Yaakov Banai, Avraham Kreity (Kapiloto), Yehudit Chason and others. They can all be identified in the pictures of the activities, trips and plays of the club in Mekor Baruch. Malca Koriel nee Mizrachi passed away in 2009. This picture album includes family photographs of Yosef and Malca, and pictures of the activities from the "playgrounds" (The Gugenheimer Playgrounds) in the Mekor Baruch neighborhood. Written by: Talya Koriel, the daughter of Yosef and Malca Nee Mizrachi. Read more