Born in 1909 in Naomastis-Taorga, Lithuania, he became a member of the Zionist organizations "Ha-Mizrahi" and "Beitar" while still a teenager and was very active in them up to the beginning of war. In 1944 he was arrested on charge of Zionist activity and sentenced to 8 years in the Gulag, in Karaganda. He was released in 1951, but his request for permission to go to Israel was constantly rejected and he only got there in 1967. Remember & Save Association website