Sussman, Abraham

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SUSSMAN, ABRAHAM

SUSSMAN, ABRAHAM (1861–1943), Israel agronomist. Born in Odessa, Sussman joined the *Bilu movement, but was not among the original settlers in Ereẓ Israel. In 1885 he established and ran a model farm near Odessa on which he trained Jewish youth for about seven years. He accompanied *Aḥad Ha-Am on his visit to Ereẓ Israel in 1900 as an emissary of the Odessa Committee of Ḥovevei Zion. In this capacity Sussman toured the Jewish settlements and later published a detailed report of the journey together with his traveling companion. After the Russian Revolution (1917), Sussman was the director of a farm near Odessa that trained groups of pioneers, including the founders of Kibbutz *Kiryat Anavim in the Jerusalem Hills. He settled in Palestine in 1924 and, among other activities, engaged in agricultural research and training.

bibliography:

D.B., in: Ha-Po'el ha-Ẓa'ir, no. 35 (1943); Tidhar, 10 (1959), 3589.

[Yehuda Slutsky]