My
father, Zeav E. Razieli (1901 – 1975) was born in Pioterkow Poland. The eldest son of the then, typical Jewish family, in Poland, Orthodox parents of eight; three sons and five daughters. Zeav was an orthodox Yeshiva University brilliant student, dressed as an orthodox Hasid with long curly sideburns.
Many who knew him, his teachers and his Rabbis, predicted he would grow up as a brilliant beloved rabbi with a bright future. As
a young scholar, he wrote commentaries and analyses of The Talmud. He spoke several languages fluently, including Hebrew,
English, Polish, Yiddish, Antique Eremite, German and later
even Arabic.
In
1917 alongside his studies, Zeav was exposed to
“Hapoal Hatzair”, a Zionist Movement founded in Palestine which
encouraged young Jewish boys and girls in exile to join them to immigrate as
pioneers to Israel, which at that time was known as Palestine.
Zeav started to participate in weekly meetings of the Zionist Movement,
concealing this from his father, a very orthodox religious man, who
believed that no one should go to the Promised Land before the Messiah’s
redemption of the Jews back to their homeland.
His
father Azrial Yehuda, was a successful business man who bought and sold merchandise to
the Jewish Community in Poland and neighboring countries. During
summer vacation, Zeav accompanied his father as part of
his business to the surrounding countries. Within a short period of
time, as his father was very busy operating the business, he allowed
Zeav to travel on his own, purchasing merchandise for the business.
Traveled throughout the neighboring areas, Zeav continued to attend meetings of the Zionist Movement in small towns and villages, made speeches and soon became one of the leaders, helped to organized the movement's camps which trained and prepared Jewish youth in order to make "Aliyah" and relocated to Palestine.
In
the beginning of 1920, Zeav decided to cut his sideburns, shaved his
beard, preparing himself to become a fully active member of the Young
Zionist Movement, to go to Palestine as a pioneer. He
urged his orthodox father to bless him for his new way, managed to persuade his father to permit him to make "Aliyah" to Palestine.
In
the summer of 1920, together with friends, Zeav boarded a
steamship in the Black Sea, sailed to the Port of Jaffa in Palestine with his small case of possessions.
At
the end of 1920, Zeav Joined "Gdud HaAvoda" and was one of the Founders of Kibbutz
Tel-Yosef (1921) in Northern Israel.
Working to build new roads in the Galilee, he exposed to Malaria mosquitoes Infested swamps in this area, resulted,
Zeav contracted malaria fever, was taken to a local hospital, where the Doctor told him that if he wants
to stay alive, he must move west to breathe clean air at a Mediterranean coast town. Zeav moved to Haifa and shared an apartment with a friend.
Working
at several jobs, he became a bus driver, later bought his own bus with a
partner, established a new public bus line from Haifa to Baghdad in Iraq via
Beirut Lebanon and Damascus, Syria.
Naomi & Zeav Razieli. Haifa 1968
One day, in 1925, his roommate and close friend, Shlomo Honigman, asked Zeav to accompanied him to received his sister arrived by ship from
Poland. It was love at first sight, Zeav and Naomi were married and lived on Mount Carmel, Haifa.
Followed
the 1932's political events in Europe, Zeav realized and predicted the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany.
Zeav went to the British Authorities in Palestine and somehow succeeded to grant him visa certificates for his whole family in
Poland to immigrate to Palestine. So 12 years after he left, Zeav traveled
back to Poland to urge his father to leave. The whole family were supposed to join. The mission succeeded partly, because not all family members agreed to leave.
This is
how Zeav saved most of his family from the Nazi Holocaust. In them; Zeav's parents, three brothers and two sisters. They left Poland in 1932 to Israel. Three sisters insisted to stay. Zeav's Sister, Rachel, 32, married to Joseph, a successful businessman and property owner, refused to leave, she thought their money will save them. His sister Hella, 27 years old single, a professor at the Faculty of Science in Warsaw University, she did not believe
anything would happen to her due to her high position at the University. Another sister, Batya, 15 years old, chooses to stay with her older married sister Rachel. but in 1939, all of them were forced, among all the Jews of the city, to move to the Jewish Ghetto. later the Nazis gas chambered Rachel and Hella in Treblinka death camp, selected younger sister Batya, for hard labor in Bergen Bellzen, Nazi labor camp, where she somehow managed to survived. At the end of the war she got married and moved with her husband to Israel.
The majority of the family were saved and their
children, grandchildren and great grandchildren still live in Israel
today.
Zeav was the first Mayor (1949) of Qiryat Tivon, a small garden town founded near
Haifa. In the last two decades of his life he returned to his religious
roots tradition and was one of the founders of the main Synagogue in Qiryat Tivon. Zeav passed away in 1975 at the age 74, survived by his beloved
wife Naomi, his two daughters Ruthy and Rina and myself. Zeav, may his Soul rest in Peace, is buried in the place that he so loved, in the cemetery of Qiryat
Tivon, looking onto the green largest valley in Israel, Jezreel Valley.
Most of the Family are religious, wearing Ymecca (Zionist knitted skullcap) goes to Synagogue. My family have no conflict of interest between my father's transformation into a secular young man and them being religious.
My father became a symbol of the family, They use to call him
"Tribal chief".
My grandfather Azrial Yehuda RIP passed away in 1955. In his head paragraph of his will my grandfather wrote: "Sons, daughters and all my descendants, you are standing today around my grave, alive, thanks to the wisdom and blessed initiative of my eldest son Zeav, your eldest brother, who is now also the head of the family. You are commanded to praise your elder brother Zeav, who had great vision to predicted the Holocaust and saved most of the family from the Nazis fingernails, brought us to The Land of Israel".
In April this year, I traveled to Poland accompanied by the youngest of my four sons, Yuval. Previously we found some old family pictures. Upon some pictures was registered on the back in Polish, the address of the family home in Piotrekow Poland - "10 Jerusalemyeska St. Piotrekow". When we got to town, I typed this address on my smartphone's G.P.S, to my great surprised I got the result that the address still exists. We droves there with great excitement and we have discovered my family house up. (See Video April 2014) We stood there for a long time in silence. I thought of my father's Zeav blessed memory, the man I adored so much and was born in this house in the Diaspora.
The moving story of our journey to Poland followed some exciting discoveries, about that, I will write and tell in the future.
Click here for Video - The Family House in Piotrekow Poland
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