The Vogel Family — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

The story of the Dov Zifroni (Vogel) family.

Dov Zifroni (Vogel) 1912 - 1968

I learned about my father's childhood and adolescence - Dov Zifroni (Vogel) - in the city of Vilna, Lithuania, only recently after reading a hidden diary that was revealed to me - a diary that my father wrote in his youth when he was sixteen. The diary spreading over seventy pages, is in handwritten Hebrew, and was written from 1928-1929. The diary is expected to be published soon. The research I conducted prior to the publication also led to the discovery of photos, certificates and moving personal documents.

The youthful diary, written from a historical point of view, and with the intention "that my name as well will not be lost forever," reveals and exposes the spiritual world, the mindset, of a Jewish boy in the diaspora. It teaches the spirit of an era between the two world wars, Jewish culture, Zionist ideas blowing throughout Eastern Europe, and the dream of aliyah to Israel, of building a country, of leaving the diaspora behind, and become a new Jew in Eretz Israel. The diary also contains a small amount of details about family life – telling of a poor, religious family, impoverished parents waiting for donations and charity from relatives in America. In the diary, my father describes the inter-generational struggle between himself and his father who insisted he continues studying at the Beit Midrash. However, he "rebelled" and devoted himself to the ideas and activities of the Hashomer Hatzair movement that made him forget the difficulties and the depressed atmosphere at home.

My father was born Berl Vogel (Feigel) to a family of rabbis in Vilna in 1912. His parents were David Ben Ben-Zion Vogel (Feigel) and his mother Pesiah Feigel née Mossinson. They lived on Little Stefanska Street 19/12, Vilna.

In Vilna, he first studied at the Tushiya Gymnasium and from there moved to the Tarbut Hebrew Gymnasium, founded by Dr. Yosef Epstein. To study at the Hebrew Gymnasium was a matter of pride and greatly desired. To be transferred to the Hebrew Gymnasium was considered very fashionable by young people, members of the youth movement Hashomer Hatzair (Hechalutz). At both Gymnasiums students learned, read and wrote in Hebrew. Despite the economic difficulty of financing his studies, he successfully completed the Gymnasium. At the same time as his studies, he was an active cadet in the movement and happily participated in training colonies. After much deliberation and internal conflicts, decided to ‘escape’ - leave home - and make aliyah to Eretz Israel.

Dov Zifroni (Vogel) made aliyah to Israel as a cadet in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement in 1934, travelling on the ship Pilzana which left Trieste, Italy and arrived at Haifa port on October 1934.

On his way, he also served as a guide and Hebrew teacher in the Hashomer Hatzair colonies in Czechoslovakia, in the towns of Bratislava, Ostrava and Brno.

Hhe left behind his sisters Rebecca and Sarah Vogel who perished in the Holocaust. Their path to their bitter fate is unknown. His younger sister Esther, to whom the diary is dedicated, was burned alive in Vilna when her hair was ignited by burning coals. His father, David Ben Ben-Zion Vogel died at a young age in 1930. He succeeded in bringing his mother, Pesiah, to Eretz Israel.

Father never spoke about his childhood, of his youth in Vilna, or about his sisters, and never spoke about his own father. Nor did he talk about the absorption problems in the country. The diary - the only evidence left of his past - reveals a number of details and allows us to portray his figure as shaped by his crucial years in Vilna.

Told by his daughter Tamar Feingold (Zifroni).

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