Daniel Abraham

Due to Haim Avraham's negative image and portrayal, as described by many, if not all, of the Israeli writers dealing with the NILI spy ring and Sarah Aaronson's biography, I feel that it is incumbent upon me, as the relative of Haim Avraham, to tell what I know about him, and that it is my duty to describe another side, the real and positive side of my relative Haim Avraham.

Haim was the eldest of four brothers: Haim, Isaac, Moritz (Moshe) and Moni (Solomon, Shlomo). Their parents died of tuberculosis and Haim was orphaned at the age of 12. Haim and his brothers were then raised by their grandfather, Moni Yaakov, and their grandmother, Rebecca (maiden name Covo). Sometimes their aunts took care of the three young orphans. (Moni, the youngest, was given and adopted by his aunt Mazal just after he was born.)

Haim was born in Ruschuk (Russe), a border town on the southern bank of the Danube River in northern Bulgaria. He graduated from the local boy's gymnasium, which was reknown then for its high level.

He traveled to Germany to further his studies in business and other related subjects, and started his business career at a relatively young age. But his place of birth and family remained close to his heart, and he visited them often. During the holidays, Haim would come and visit and would stay with my grandmother, his mother's sister.  My grandmother used to call him Henri, my mother called him Heinrich, and that's what he called himself: Heinrich Abraham.

After the end of the First World War, he founded the "Maccabi" organisation in our city, in Ruschuk, which contributed greatly to the education and physical development of the younger generations, and we were all among the Maccabi members.

In the large gymnasium there was a large portrait of Haim Avraham in a gymnastic outfit and with a blue-and-white ribbon along his chest, from his right shoulder, with the slogan: "A healthy spirit in a healthy body."

Haim, during this chapter of his life also "invented" Hebrew terms for gymnastics' commands. (One should remember that in those days, the Hebrew sports language was quite dull!). In our meetings years later in his home in Bat-Galim, Haim would tell me how the commands should have been invented: "Turn back!", or "Step forward!", in Hebrew of course.

From Ruschuk, he moved to Constantinople, which became his base for his business with Germany.

Once there, he didn't lose his passion for Zionism and his connections to Maccabi. Haim attended, if not as a delegate, as a spectator, some of the Zionist Congresses. He had very good relations with many Zionist leaders from Germany and Eastern Europe, and with the Palestinian Rahel Yanait - Ben Zvi, Hana Maizel. On the other hand, he was critical of the behaviour and habits of Yishuv leaders, although he admired Haim Arlozorof, who was murdered in 1934, probably by an extreme-right Jew. He also liked Vladimir Jabotinsky, and was against David Ben Gurion.

He was introduced to Sarah Aaronson through his friend Dr. Israel Auerbach, who was a friend of the Aaronson family of Zikhron Yaacov.

When I was a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, I met Dr. Israel Auerbach, who told me many times that Haim had said he wanted a girl from the pioneers who had settled Palestine, had asked him to match him with a daughter of Eretz Israel, and that he was the one who had introduced Chaim Avraham to Sarah Aharonson.

So he married Sarah and took her to Constantinople were she was isolated from her activities back home. As is well known, the marriage did not work out. The differences between the two were too vast. In practice, they never were fit to each other, not in culture, interest, and nature.

Many years later, while I was studying at the Nahalal Agricultural school at the very beginning of the Second World War, I used to visit the Abraham couple who lived in an apartment in the Haifa suburb of Bat Galim. His second wife was Miriam Franco from Constantinople. He immigrated to Palestine in 1934.