אבידב אבידוב Avidov, Yani Yanni Yany

Birth Name אבידב אבידוב Avidov, Yani Yanni Yany [1] [2a] [3a] [4]
Birth Name אבידב אבידוב , ינאי
Call Name Yanni
Call Name ינאי
Gender male
Age at Death unknown

Events

Event Date Place Description Notes Sources
Birth      

 
Marriage     Yanni Avidov married Nessia

 
Aliyah 1920   Yanni Avidov and his wife, Nessia, left the Ukraine together with members of their extended families

 
Military Service   מוסד לעלייה ב' Mossad leAliyah Bet  

Event Note

Between l943-l946, Yanni Avidov undertook many dangerous missions in neighboring, and hostile,
He was almost caught in Syria.
In 1946, he was sent to Egypt.

Event Note

In September, 1946, Reuven Yatir יתיר was sent to Greece, where Yanni Avidov אבידב was stationed, to acquire boats for Mossad le Aliyah Bet.

Event Note

Yosef Lazarovsky boarded a ship in Haifa חיפה, with no papers, but did have a belt that contained gold coins to be delivered to Yanni Avidov, chief of Mossad le Aliyah Bet in Greece.
When the boat arrived at Piraeus Πειραιάς, Benyamin Yerushalmi came aboard, and when he got off the boat, Yosef Lazarovsky followed him to the house Mossad leAliyah Bet used in Athens Αθήνα.

Event Note

In 1947, Yanni Avidov, serving as representative of the Jewish Agency, arrived in Algers, and contacted Ephraim Ben Haim and Aizer Cherki, who described to him the plight of the Jews in Arab countries.
In May, 1947, as a result of the meeting, two boats sailed from Algeria, carrying Maapilim to Morocco.

 

 
Membership 1928 מושב נהלל moshav Nahalal, עמק יזרעאל, הגליל התחתון, הצפון, ישראל Yanni Avidov was among the early settlers

Event Note

After seven years living on kibbutz Ein Harod קיבוץ עין חרוד, Yanni Avidov, his wife, Nessia, and their children, moved across the valley.

Place Note

In 1943, during the British Mandate period, the Haganah dug a weapons cache (slik), 5 meters deep and 25 square meters in area, under the cesspit for collecting cow urine, adjacent Yanni Avidov's cowshed, at moshav Nahalal מושב נהלל.
During Black Sabbath, June 28, 1946, the entrance to the slik was sealed to prevent discovery by the British.
Not until 1948, was the slik reopened; to provide arms to the combat forces during the 1948 War of Independence.

 
Boat September, 1946 רפיח MS Athinai Αθηνά MV Athina Rafah Rafiach Rafiah את'ינה Mossad leAliyah Bet acquired MV ΑΘΗΝΑ Rafiah רפיח, and sailed her from Pireaus Πειραιάς to Bakar

Place Note

In September, 1946. MV Αθηνά Athinai was acquired by Mossad leAliyah Bet.
Reuven Yatir , who was sent to Greece, to work with Yanni Avidov, cites because of delays in arranging finances, seller and buyer agreed to move the vessel from Piraeus Πειραιάς to a protected bay in the island of Sapienza, out of reach of the Greek and British authorities.
The acquisition of MV Αθηνά Athinai was concluded in mid-October, 1946.
Reuven Yatir cites: "When the deal with the “Rafiah” was closed, we accompanied her to Bakar. En route we ran up onto a rock and had to be towed. No damage was visible. The British came along to check the identity of the vessel. We vanished on a fishing vessel that we had prepared for such an
emergency. When the whole affair was over the Greek Captain received orders to return to Piraeus. We met the “Rafiah” at sea, boarded it, took possession, and took it to Bakar."

 
Boat   הנרייטה סולד Arites Salas Aric Saiam Ariete Salom Henrietta Szold Mossad leAliyah Bet prepared Henriettta Szold הנרייטה סולד to sail from Greece

Event Note

In September, 1946, Reuven Yatir יתיר was sent to Greece, where Yanni Avidov אבידב was stationed, to acquire boats for Mossad le Aliyah Bet.

Event Note

Levi Schwartz and Shaar 'Sharik' Yashuv looked for for orphaned Jewish children who they could send to Palestine.

Event Note

Yanni Avidov, of Mossad leAliyah Bet, prepared Henriettta Szold הנרייטה סולד for the voyage from Greece.
Shmuel Samek Yanai שמואל סמק ינאי cites: "Yanni Avidov took the place of Levi Schwartz. Yanni’s chief aim in life was to save children. He, together with his helper, Shaar Yashuv (Sharik from Kibbutz Bet Hashita), went from monastery to monastery looking for Jewish children whose parents had left them there when they were taken to Auschwitz. They gathered about 400 children and brought them to a special camp. The next ship was to be for them. Even before we had a ship, Yanni had already named it the “Henriettta Szold”, in honor of the founder of the Aliyat Ha'Noar."

 
Membership   קיבוץ עין חרוד kibbutz Ein Harod, הגלבוע, עמק יזרעאל, הצפון, ישראל Yanni Avidov and his wife, Nessia, joined joined pioneers from Gdud Ha'avoda

 
Death 1970   Yanni Avidov died of a heart attack

Event Note

Ofer Avidov cites Yani Avidov "spent a lot of time with Alterman and was devastated by his death,"

 

Families

Unknown Partner
  Children
  1. אבידב Avidov, Eitan ben Yani
Unknown Partner
  Children
  1. אבידב Avidov, Dov ben Yani

Narrative

In 1955, Yanni Avidov masterminded and carried out a secret operation to smuggle 75,000 of the finest species of date-palm trees from Iraq into Israel.
Because Israel had no diplomatic or trade relations with neighboring Arab countries, getting the date-palm trees into Israel was a problem.
Ofer Avidov cites "It was forbidden to take date palm seedlings out of Iraq, so Yanni smuggled them across the Sha'at al Arab waterway to the Iranian side, and from there through the Suez Canal to Cyprus Κύπρος."
The Egyptians were told that the saplings were bound for Italy. and they trees through, but instead of going to Italy, they stopped on the route north at Haifa, where men were waiting to unload them into Israel.
The species of dates that Yanni Avidov smuggled into Israel were essential to reviving the ancient date growing tradition in Eretz Yisrael.

Source References

  1. נתיבים נעלמים :‏ ‏עם ההעפלה במחתרת, במדבר ובים
  2. From Catastrophe to Power: Holocaust Survivors and the Emergence of Israel
    1. Page: 165
  3. Momentous century: personal and eyewitness accounts of the rise of the Jewish homeland and state, 1875-1978
    1. Page: 232, Yani Avidov Relates how Jewish Children were Smuggled into Eretz Yisrael from Syria
  4. Mysterious Ways

Pedigree

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