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Dayan

DAYAN, family in Ereẓ Israel. SHEMUEL (1891–1968), pioneer of cooperative settlement in Ereẓ Israel. Dayan was born in Zhashkov, Ukraine, and joined the Zionist movement as a youth, settling in Ereẓ Israel in 1908. There he worked as a laborer in various agricultural settlements and was a founder of the kevuẓah *Deganyah Alef and later of Deganyah Bet. In 1921 he helped found the first *moshav ovedim, *Nahalal. A leader of the *Ha-Po'el ha-Ẓa'ir Party, and later of *Mapai, Dayan represented the moshav movement in yishuv institutions, in the Histadrut, and at Zionist Congresses. He was a leading member of the Histadrut Agricultural Center (Ha-Merkaz ha-Ḥakla'i) and a Mapai member in the First, Second, and Third Knessets. He published books and articles about Nahalal, Deganyah, and the moshav ovedim, including Nahalal (1936); Moshav Ovedim (1945); Pioneers in Israel (1961); and Man and the Soil (1965). His wife DEVORAH (née Zatolowsky; 1890–1956) was a leader of the women's labor movement and an editor of Devar ha-Po'elet (women workers' weekly). Her articles appearing in the labor press were collected in the books Asapper (1952) and Be-Osher u-ve-Yagon (1959; Pioneer, 1968). The elder son of Shemuel and Devorah was Moshe *Dayan (1915–1981), military commander and statesman. Their younger son ZOHAR (1926–1948) died in the Israeli War of Independence. A book of his poems and letters, Be-Eragon: Shirim ve-Iggerot, was published posthumously in 1950. Moshe's wife RUTH (née Schwartz; 1917– ) was active in the development of home industries during the early years of Israel, and was head of the Crafts Department in the Ministry of Labor during 1953–54. She was founder and managing director of government-sponsored Maskit, which produces and markets Israeli handicrafts. His daughter Yael *Dayan (1939– ) wrote the novels New Face in the Mirror (1959), Envy the Frightened (1961), Dust (1963), and Death had Two Sons (1965), as well as Israel Journal, June 1967 (1967), and also served in the Knesset. His son Assaf (Assi) *Dayan (1945– ) was a film actor and director.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.