Yosef Achai (nee Sukastalisky- Kafkafi) ( Born in Kovno on December 17, 1898 - passed away in Israel February 17, 1988) was one of the founders of the He - Chaluts movement in Lithuania, a pioneer of the Third Aliyah, a Hebrew educator, writer, editor and translator, Journalist and children's poet, one of the founders of Kibbutz Netzer Sereni.
Achai was born in 1898 in the city of Kaunas (Lithuania)He was named Yosef Shukstalsky, the eldest of the seven children of Pearl (Pnina) nee Kidansky and Shmuel Shukstalisky (later Shmuel Kafkafi; born in 1874–passed away in 1939 in Eretz Israel). His father Shmuel was one of the founders of the revised room in Kaunas, where they taught the Bible, modern Hebrew literature and grammar, in addition to the usual studies in the old room. When the Real Gymnasium was founded in Kaunas, it had a Bible teacher. Yosef studied in a "Cheder/room" and in a yeshiva, and graduated from his father's gymnasium. Yosef was greatly influenced by his zlonist father, when the He - Chaluts movement was founded in independent Lithuania at the end of the First World War, he joined its ranks, and after a short agricultural training he immigrated to Eretz Israel with a fraternity group in 1921. Due to his education and pedagogical skills, the group sent him to a teachers' seminary in Jerusalem, so that he could be a teacher in the farm they would establish. When he lived in the company of the Labor Battalion in Jerusalem, he met Genia Meisels, one of the "pioneers" of Joseph Trumpeldor, who immigrated from Russia and studied painting at Bezalel, and the two started a family together. When Genia was about to give birth, they both dropped out of school and returned to his group, which was then in Ayelet Hashahar. The name of the group, "Achva", is the source of the family name he adopted for himself, and also for the name of his eldest son, Ahiezer (Achik), who was born in 1923. His second son Gilaad, who was born about a year later in Jerusalem, died in infancy. The group moved to Moshava Yavneel, and Achai returned to Jerusalem to complete his studies at the seminary. In 1925 he graduated and moved with his family to Tel Aviv and was one of the first teachers in the school for the children of workers. In 1926 his daughter Avital was born. At the end of 1927 my brother moved to Moshav Balfouria and was a teacher at the school there. Heftziba, and in 1930 he moved with his family to Kibbutz Kinneret, where he taught at the Kinneret-Degania joint school, and at the end of that year Yosef and Genia separated.
Yosef went to the city of Nuremberg, Germany, where he replaced S. Shalom as a Hebrew teacher in the "Hebrew Language Enthusiasts" class of Dr. Meinhold Nussbaum. In 1935 he returned to Israel, to Kibbutz Givat Brenner, where he lived until 1952. He taught Hebrew, kept the kibbutz diary and was one of the first creators of the kibbutz Haggadah for Passover. the eldest remained to study in Tel Aviv and later graduated from the Hebrew Gymnasium in Herzliya, while his daughter Avital joined him in Givat Brenner and was educated in the children's company on the farm. In the 1940s, he married Zippora Tennenbaum, a native of Warsaw, who immigrated in 1928 and immediately arrived at Brenner Hill. The couple had three children: Omri (1941), Shmuel (1942) and Idit (1945). His wife had multiple sclerosis, and was bedridden for years.
As part of the split in Kibbutz Hameuchad, Achai joined the retiring Mapai members and was one of the founders of Kibbutz Netzer Sereni, named after his good friend Enzo Sereni, a member of Givat Brenner who was one of the paratroopers from Eretz Israel. 1988), but most of the time he worked as the kibbutz's emissary in the Tel Aviv area,Worked for the publishing house of the Union of Groups and Kibbutzim in Tel Aviv, as the editor of the journal of the union "Niv Hachavasha" and as the book's stylist for the publishing house. He also translated Yiddish and German poetry, kept a special diary in honor of Shabbat, composed hymns and children's songs and participated in writing for the newspapers "Davar", "Davar Leilim" (was a member of the editorial board) and "Hador". Since the first fifties of the 20th century, when many Bible classes were founded in Israel, inspired by the Society for the Study of the Bible in Israel, the Tel Aviv Workers' Council has also established Bible classes, and Achai was elected to lead the main class at Beit Tavori and later at "Berman House." Achai, who fascinated his listeners, was asked to teach in other biblical classes: in Holon, Ramat Gan, Rishon Lezion, Tzahala and Kibbutz Netzer Sereni. He continued to lecture in biblical circles until near his death at age almost 90.He is known as one of the greatest distributors of the Bible among the workers in the workers' councils and among the popular strata.
His younger brother, Yitzhak Kafkafi (1911–1998), was one of the founders of the Ha - Machanot HaOlim youth movement, a translator and editor.
Yosef Achai
Birth:
1898 Kovno
Death:
israel 1988 ( age 90)
Immediate Family:
Son of Shmuel Sukshteliski and Perla Leia Kedainska
Father of Achiezer Achai Avital D'lugoff; Shmuel Achai Omri, Achai and] Idit
Brother of Isaac (Yitzhakale) Kafkafi (Sukshteliski); and Yeruham Kafkafi