Yoel Drubin (1857–1923) was a member of the Bilu group and one of the founders of

Rishon Lezion Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ar ...

Biography

Yoel Drubin was born in 1857 in

Kovno Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

. In 1882, he joined the Bilu movement and

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to Palestine. He helped to establish the Jewish colony of Rishon Lezion along with

Israel Belkind Israel Belkind ( be, Ізраэль Белкінд, he, ישראל בלקינד; 1861–1929) was a Jewish educator, author, writer, historian and founder of the Bilu movement. A pioneer of the First Aliyah, Belkind founded the ''Biluim'', a gro ...

, Haim Hissin, David Yudilovich and other Biluites. While some of the original settlers left in the wake of financial difficulties and personal conflicts, Drubin was among those who remained. Drubin married Hannah, who was among a group of pioneer women who wrote to Baroness de Rothschild, urging her to convince her husband,

Edmond James de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...

to reconsider his stance on the financing of the Jewish colonies after a dispute between the colonists and the Baron's administrators. Drubin played an active role in the public and cultural life of Rishon Lezion in its early days. He was a signatory of the first village charter in 1897. He served as a board member of the council of wineries of Rishon Lezion and Zikhron Yaakov.

Family and legacy

Yoel and Hannah Drubin had four sons and two daughters. His grandson and namesake, Yoel Drubin, was attacked and killed by Arabs on 9 May 1947. A street in Rishon Lezion commemorates the cofounder of the city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drubin, Yoel 1857 births 1923 deaths Bilu People from Rishon LeZion Zionists from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Israeli farmers People from Kaunas