Yosef was born 1912 in Talaman village, Bender county Besserabya, to Pesach and Rosa, a Jewish farming family. He grew up and was educated in Bender city. From an early age he was active in Maccabi Youth, and among its finest instructors.  Becoming politically involved, he founded the Beitar nucleus at Bender 1929 and became its leader. Dedicatedly, he managed to make it one of the finest in the Beitar. In 1933 he made Aliyah settling in Netanya; he worked in construction, was among the founders of the National Workers Union, and led the Netanya branch until the outbreak of WWII. Yosef was among the strongest objectors to the Revisionist Movement’s and Etzel’s policy of co-operation with the British; based on his objection, he resigned from the Revisionist Party, after a lengthy membership.

In 1939 he married Yutsika Yehudit nee Vitzan and they had a son, Nadiv. Yosef was among the first who supported Yair and his ideology and during  the underground’s years of existence he assisted Lehi whenever he could. For many years he provided the  movement’s solid base in Netanya. He supported the underground materially; his house served as a shelter for wanted members, he recruited members and obtained contacts required for Lehi’s functioning. None of the searches in his household led to his arrest, since he always managed to evade the British. When establishment of the State was nearing, he became a strong activist in establishing the ‘Fighters’ Party’, and led their Netanya branch. Yosef was arrested by the Israeli Police on September 18,1948 with arrests of Lehi members throughout the country due to the assassination of Count Bernadotte, by a group of Lehi members.

With the others, he underwent imprisonment in Jaffa, then Akko and later Jalameh Prison. Following a hunger strike, amnesty was given to all the detainees and he returned to his activities in Netanya. Yosef was a  good tempered person, full of life and always merry.

On July 23,1949, he went swimming in Netanya’s sea with his wife and son, not far from home, and there he  drowned.