Avraham Eugen Michaelis (1907 - 1974).

 By: Frederique Feldman, Youth Aliyah Review, London, Autumn Issue, 1962.
 

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Avraham Eugen Michaelis

Founder and First Director of
Kfar Hanoar Hadati

Born: 9th June 1909, Hamburg Germany
Deceased: 24th February 1974,
Kfar Hanoar Hadati, Israel.
 

In   any   successful   educational system the students mould themselves on the pattern of the educators. If the pupils of Kfar haNoar Hadati follow the teachings of Avraham Eugen Michaelis, they will become citizens whose public spirit and integrity will enrich Israel.
Avraham Eugen Michaelis was born in Hamburg in 1907 into an orthodox Zionist family. His father was a banker; his mother was a teacher and came from the famous rabbinical family Wohlgemuth.
Eugen started schooling at the Hamburg Talmud Torah. In addition, his father engaged a Jewish Lithuanian student to teach his son Hebrew as a living language. This undergraduate used to take the young Michaelis out for walks and speak to him in Hebrew only. In those days - when Zionism was a mere dream - it was indeed a very enlightened step on the part of the parents.
Later Eugen went to a German grammar school, and, after his matriculation, studied history, German literature, Hebrew and Arabic at the university of Hamburg. Already then he contemplated going to Palestine and, with this in mind, took a teaching degree.
As far back as 1924 Michaelis took an active part in the creation of a Zionist Youth Movement in Germany and helped to found the "Zeire Mizrachi" and "Brith Hanoar Hadati" which is the B'nai Akiva Movement of today. He became the director of "Keren Tora VeAvoda" the funding agency of Zionist religious youth movements in Germany and western Europe.
Michaelis started his teaching career at a non-Jewish school in Hamburg and then changed to the "Talmud Torah School", which later became a grammar school.

   He belonged to one of the first who realized the importance of preparing Jewish youth for pioneering tasks in Israel and, together with some friends, organized the first Hachsharah centre in Germany. In 1935 he participated in the 19^th Zionist Congress in Luzern and in 1937, was elected as a delegate for the 20^th Zionist Congress in Zurich.
At the same time he and his friends discussed among themselves the possibility of founding an orthodox Children's Village in Eretz Israel (Palestine). They envisaged a village which would combine communal life, religious instruction and agricultural training. The plans for this village were worked out in detail by Eugen Michaelis. In 1936 this dream became reality when Kfar Hanoar Hadati was established by Youth Aliyah, American branch of Hadassah and with the help of religious circles from Germany, and in 1938 Michaelis became director of the village.
From small beginnings Kfar Hanoar Hadati, under the guidance and leadership of Eugen Michaelis, has grown to become the largest religious training institution. The village, which started with 60 children, now accommodates 370 and is a recognized agricultural High School. A Government recognized teachers' seminar (for country schools) is also attached to the village under the direction of Eugen Michaelis.
Mr. Michaelis is married and has three daughters and one son. His wife, Eva (nee Durlacher) is a trained nurse, who helps her husband by supervising the female staff of the Youth Village. The two eldest daughters have followed in their father's footsteps by becoming teachers.
He is first and foremost interested in religious education, followed by history and politics. He considers the development of the child's personality as one of the most important tasks and tries, by his favorite method of friendly debates, to make the pupil into a critically thinking, independent person; in a country, where a large part of the population lack fundamental education, this is, according to Mr. Michaelis, a vital factor in child and youth education.
Eugen Michaelis has a wonderful library and is a voracious reader. He has a warm-hearted, lively personality, and is interested in all facets of life. Religious faith to him is the certainty of divine guidance "to walk in the ways of the Lord", and it is this absolute faith that makes him an outstanding person and educator.
 

Eugen Michaelis 1936

Agricultural and Religious Education in Kfar Hanoar Hadati - Israel.