NAME: Reuveni (née Shapira), Hisia

LEHI ALIAS: Elinoar

DATE OF BIRTH: March 22, 1922

DATE OF DEATH: January 8, 2004

Hisia, daughter of Neta and Pesia was born in a small town in Poland on 22 March 1922 to a Zionist family, immersed in love for the Land of Israel. Her dream was aliyah. She studied in Tarbut elementary and high school. At age thirteen, she joined Beitar, and as time passed and the IZL cells were established, she joined them and became very active.

When World War II began, the IZL began organizing Bericha groups. Hisia joined, and she crossed the border and reached Vilnius. When the Soviets reached it, the group managed to acquire forged documents that got them as far as Turkey. They then waited about a year for certificates. Finally, in June 1941, they made it at last to the Promised Land, and they joined Lehi to fight the British occupier, in order to establish a Jewish state.

Hisia was the communications aide for Yair until the day he died; on that very morning, she brought him his mail for the last time. She continued her underground activities until being arrested in 1944 in her room on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. The owner of the apartment, from whom she rented her room, had turned her in. She was subject to a court marital, which sentenced her to three years in Bethlehem Women’s Prison. After her release, she went back to full duty in the underground, coordinating the recruitment division.

When the State was established and Lehi was disbanded, Hisia married Hanoch “Nichko” Reuveni, a fellow Lehi member. They had a daughter and a son. Urban life bored them after their underground experiences, and they joined Kibbutz Kabri in the western Galilee, which they saw as a place they could realize their egalitarian worldview and contribute to the goals they saw as important. Hisia had many important roles on the kibbutz, culturally and socially.

In 1976, Hisia and Nichko lost their daughter Rivkaleh, who was killed in a car accident.

Today, she volunteers in various capacities. At Rupin College, she completed her studies in social work, and she helped at various kibbutzim: Beit Oren, El Rom and Eyal. She also volunteers to treat and support the patients at Nahariya Hospital. The son, Dudi, lives in Kibbutz El Rom in the Golan Heights, with his wife Yosefa and their three sons.