Shereshevsky, Robert, Dr.
The only son of Richard and Miriam. He was born on December 30, 1936 in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. His family influenced him with great love and good and at home absorbed the foundations of security that he had in the coming years. His father was a young jurist who excelled in his talents; His mother was interested in Yaffa literature and her tendencies influenced his personality. Before Robert was three years old, World War II broke out and the family had to move from the Polish Quarter to the Jewish Quarter. Not a single year passed and the gates of the ghetto were closed. In the summer of 1942, the mother fled with Robert and found refuge in a Polish family house, with the help of forged documents. But in early 1943 Robert’s father was taken to the death camp. During the Polish revolt, Robert and his mother and grandmother were deported from the burning city to a labor camp in Berlin as Poles; This was in August 1944, but at the end of April 1945-and Robert, then eight years old-the camp residents were liberated by the Red Army and Robert, his mother and grandmother returned to Poland. When they returned to Warsaw, the mother went to work and his grandmother took care of him with love and devotion. At the beginning of 1946 the family left Poland, moved to Rome, and Robert enrolled as a student in an Italian school, where he quickly acquired the Italian language and excelled in his studies. The Italian episode lasted about three years and served as a transitional stage between the war period and the family’s immigration to Israel at the end of May 1949. When she arrived, she moved to an immigrant neighborhood in Ramat Gan. The problem of language and conditions that were not easy gave the child many difficulties. For one year he studied at the youth village in son of Shemen, where he was organized as part of the “Youth Aliyah”. At first he was absorbed in an institution that was not very easy because of his longing for the family, and a year later he had to leave his studies there due to his illness and moved to the elementary school in Ramat Yitzhak. During his studies at the high school in Ramat Gan, “Ohel Shem”, he excelled in his talents, especially in history. As a seventh grader, he joined the Hanoar Haoved movement and after graduating from high school he went to Kibbutz Hagoshrim and together with the entire group he joined Kibbutz Yiron and stayed there for several months. Because of his health, Robert was not enlisted for military service. He left the kibbutz and at the beginning of 1956 was accepted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a student in the Faculty of Social Sciences and studied economics and political science. In the meantime, he worked in the Ministry of Finance and in 1958 he received the BA degree. He continued his studies while providing teaching assistance in the Department of Economics and received the MA degree in 1961. Toward the end of that year he began his research work towards the degree of Doctor in London School of Economics. ” In July 1962 he went to Ghana for one year and there he and two other members of the economic research of contemporary Ghana worked; This study was funded by the Ford Foundation. In the summer of 1963 he returned to London and completed his research work toward the doctorate the following summer. In 1965 this work was published in the form of a book. Meanwhile, Robert married a wife and in the next few years he had a daughter and a son. When Robert returned to Israel, he was accepted as a senior lecturer in the economics department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in the Department of African Studies, and those who heard the Torah from his mouth followed him and drank his lectures eagerly. He also worked in the framework of the Falk Institute for Economic Research in the Land of Israel – Palestine. Robert spoke a great deal about the problem of our relations with the Arab countries and his Lev was subject to the social-moral character of our country and his views were expressed more than once in public debates at Kol Yisrael and at the university. Since he had never served, he was not called to be appointed to the flag in the Six-Day War, but in those crucial days Robert felt the need to take an active part in what was going on. At first he volunteered to serve in the Jerusalem car unit, but he did not do enough and volunteered for an infantry regimentWhich was in Jerusalem for security and security purposes. On the first day of the war, on the 5th of Iyar 5727 (5.6.1967), he fell in an observation post during a battle in the Beit Israel neighborhood in the “vegetable garden” in Jerusalem. He left a wife and two children; The youngest of them had not yet completed a year. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. It should be noted that during his life Robert published works in Israel and abroad that constitute a considerable scientific asset (such as his book on the structure of the Jewish agriculture in Palestine and Israel) and a number of articles (such as on the development of the tropical African agriculture) At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in what was heard there were published by the university. Several members devoted their scientific work to his memory. His grandmother, Helena Szereszewska, dedicated her two books (“The Last Chapter,” published by Hakibbutz Hameuhad and “Between the Cross and the Mezuzah” published by “Moreshet” and the Workers’ Library) in his memory. The book “The War on Jerusalem” by Moshe Nathan was published in the book “Nizkor” published by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Student Union, edited by Yehuda Ha-Ezrachi.
