Kopel, Abraham

Son of Clara and Jacob, was born on 17.4.1927 in Dortmund, Germany. He began to attend elementary school under a regime of humiliation of the Jews under Nazi rule. A few months after the outbreak of the Second World War, his parents sent him to Palestine in the Youth Aliyah. Avraham arrived in Israel on March 24, 1940 and was educated in the son of Shemen Youth Village for five years. He joined the Hashomer Hatzair group. He spent two years in the agricultural school and excelled in farming and education, added a year of training in Ayalon, and then moved with his group to a kibbutz in Kiryat Haim and worked for six months in the Haifa port. In October 1946, he settled with his group in Dangur (Nirim) where he served as the center of the agriculture and especially devoted himself to plowing fields from around the Negev in a tractor. From there he moved with his group to establish Kibbutz Yehiam, where he held many positions and in particular devoted himself to developing new sources of income. They learned how to grow mushrooms, and succeeded in raising them in the caves of the ancient fortress. During the War of Independence, he was in charge of one of the two Bren machine guns of the besieged kibbutz and fulfilled his role in cold weather despite the constant danger. When the siege of the kibbutz broke out, he dreamed of renewing agricultural work to establish the agriculture, but before that there was another need to cut the ground by digging trenches and shelters. While digging a trench in the rocky land was killed when explosives exploded on September 3, 1948. He was laid to rest in the Yehiam cemetery. His memory was mentioned in the book “In Memory of Them” by Kibbutz Yehiam.