Gofferman, Asher

Son of Liba and Zalman. He was born in 1904 in the town of Czizelnik, Russia, where his mother died when he gave birth to him, and his father moved to Balta, Ukraine, where he was educated in elementary and high school and studied the Hebrew language. In June 1926 he immigrated to Eretz Israel and immediately began working as a farmer in various agricultural sectors in Rishon Letzion, Rehovot and other places, one number working on the days of being “green” in the group: “… Suddenly Asher goes out, takes my hand out of my hand and says in a gentle social tongue: ‘Rest a little’ and I was amazed, not the same cynicism that prevailed among the workers at that time, The same scorn and scorn for everything we cultivated in our midst and dreamed of abroad before we immigrated … I saw before me for the first time the high figure of the friend … ” He was among the founders of the “Greengrove Group” in northern Tel Aviv near the Yarkon River. In 1927 he married a wife, also a pioneer from Russia, and gave birth to a son and a daughter. Afterward he worked for a while in Gesher and Degania, where he moved to Herzliya where he became a laborer in Pardes and a member of the Haganah. In 1936 he was one of the first members to move to Rishpon and was one of its founders. He was very active in public life in Herzliya and soon became director of the local labor office. His role was difficult and complex, as A. describes. Kahner: “Those who dealt with the distribution of labor in the settlement were between the anvil of a hungry worker or a half starving man and the hammer of the citrus grove … and without rest and without sleep he ran from laborer to laborer, from work to work … He often saw his car or donkey, Thinking and planning plans. ” He devoted his time to the Mishan Institute to help the members, and later ran the Yachin-LKL office in Herzliya, which dealt with processing citrus groves in the area, volunteering for Magen David Adom, Haga and other services. In 1942, during the Second World War, he enlisted in the British Army Artillery Corps and at the end of 1943 moved with his company to Cyprus where he was assigned to guard duty. On the 29th of Tevet 5704 (29.12.1943), he fell from the wall of Famagusta, while guarding the anti-aircraft position of the cannon, was seriously wounded and hospitalized for fifteen months in hospitals in Cyprus and Egypt. His wounds were brought to eternal rest in the Herzliya cemetery. His funeral was held quietly and without eulogies, as he had wished in his last letters. The story of Asher ‘s life. “One of the dreamers and warriors who bear the vision of the renewal of man and the people in their souls, the man of pioneering fulfillment was, and his vision did not expire on the long, small day and did not let go of it in the most severe hours …” Asher’s friends in Israel and the first Israeli battery for light anti-aircraft guns published a booklet in his memory called “One who Fell”; On the thirtieth of his death, a commission was set up to carry out the commemoration of his name, which decided to establish a culture building named after Gofferman in Rishpon, as well as a cultural building in the workers’ neighborhood in Herzliya.