The son of Chana and Pesach, Arieh was born on April 8th, 1915, in New York. He studied at junior and high school and then entered New York City College where he took a four-year course in the arts and humanities, with emphasis on education and instruction. He received his Zionist education at the “Kindervalt” school, part of the “Poelei Zion” movement and at summer schools run by the same movement.
In 1932 he joined “Poelei Zion” and three years later he became one of the key organizers and initiators of the labor Zionist youth movement “Habonim.”
From the spring of 1936, he worked in the movement’s summer camps in Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, as well as in other places. He was known everywhere as a wonderful educator. As part of his intention to make aliyah, he prepared himself for his new life at the Krimridge Ranch, but after a year he was pressed to return to his work in “Habonim.” During the years 1940-42 he coordinated educational activities and work at the movement’s centre in New York, and edited their newspaper “Habonim.”
In 1942, he was recruited into the American Navy, and served as a radio officer; during his service he visited many countries, England and France amongst them. On his release from the Navy In 1945, he returned to his previous educational work until January 1946, when he dealt with recruiting volunteers for Aliyah Bet activities. Arieh himself was amongst the first volunteers and went out with two of the first ships that sailed from America.
He arrived in Palestine in July 1946 on the Aliyah Bet ship “Haganah” and joined Kibbutz Kfar Blum, a Habonim kibbutz. His wife was already there, as she had made aliyah previously. On the kibbutz he worked in building and eventually as an electrician. Before the outbreak of the War of Independence, on March 15th, 1948, while climbing a pole to repair an electric cable that was part of he protective fence of the kibbutz, he was hit by a sniper firing from the eastern side of the Jordan River.
He was laid to rest at the Kfar Blum cemetery, where his wife and daughter were later buried.
Translated from the Yizkor Web site, and including extracts from the book “The Jews’ Secret Fleet.”