Biography
Weitz was born in Burmel, Volhynia in 1890. In 1908, he immigrated to Palestine with his sister, Miriam, and found employment as a watchman and an agricultural laborer in Rehovot. In 1911, he was one of the organizers of the Union of Agricultural Laborers in Eretz Yisrael. Weitz married Ruhama and their eldest son, Ra'anan, was born in 1913. Two years later, in 1915, he was appointed foreman of the Sejera training farm (now Ilaniya) in the Lower Galilee. Weitz helped to found Yavniel, one of the first pioneer colonies in the Galilee, and later, the Beit Hakerem neighborhood in Jerusalem. His son Yehiam (Hebrew for "Long Live the Nation"), born in October 1918, was killed in a Palmach operation on June 16, 1946. Kibbutz Yehiam was established in his memory. Sharon Weitz, another son, followed in his father's footsteps and later took over as director of the Forestry Department.
Read more about this topic: Yosef Weitz
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