Peisach Abramovich Krasnogorsky was born on April 7 (March 23, Old Style), 1904, in the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv Governorate, into a family of petty townspeople — the stoker Avrom Yudovich Krasnogorsky and the housewife Tuba Shlemovna Khenkin. For Peisach’s parents, the traditions of their ancestors were not merely a frozen ritual but constituted the very essence of everyday life. Therefore, it is not surprising that the boy’s path was predetermined by the classical Jewish canon: cheder, followed by yeshiva. There, Peisach not only honed the art of Talmudic debate but also tempered his character. In discussions about the meaning of existence and the fate of the people, an understanding began to take shape that a Jew could be not only an object of history but also its creator.
Peisach did not limit himself to religious education, also completing secondary school. This combination — a traditional Jewish foundation and secular knowledge — created a unique fusion of personality. He navigated religious texts and classical literature with equal ease. This later allowed Peisach to combine two different roles within himself: a successful, charismatic leader and an intellectual mentor to the youth. And all this at just over twenty years old.
Peisach’s childhood fell on a turning point era. The conservative world of the Torah, with its centuries-old traditions, still retained its influence. And yet the walls of the ghetto (albeit metaphorical — within the Pale of Settlement) had already begun to crumble under the pressure of new ideas. The mutual influence of the two worlds was also facilitated by the unique atmosphere of pre-revolutionary Nizhyn. Patriarchal coziness here clashed with the ambitions of a major commercial and educational center; alongside Orthodox churches, life in the Jewish quarters was bustling, and the noisy, polyphonic market stood next to the famous Bezborodko Lyceum.
Why did Peisach Krasnogorsky, a gifted and well-read young man with a good education, choose the dangerous path of a Zionist underground activist? The answer lies in the bloody pages of the history of his hometown.
For Peisach and his generation, Jewish pogroms were not dry lines from a history textbook — they constituted a grim, inseparable part of everyday reality. Nizhyn experienced terrible outbreaks of violence — in 1881 and, even more severely, in October 1905. During the second of these pogroms, Peisach was one year old. Of course, he was unlikely to remember it; however, he could not have been unaware of it.
But an even more terrible ordeal came during the years of the Civil War. At that time, Nizhyn changed hands more than once: Reds, Whites, Petliurists, various bands… After the Bolsheviks withdrew at the end of August 1919, units of the Volunteer Army entered the city. A cheerful crowd gathered at the railway station to greet the Denikin forces. But instead of gallant officers, Cossacks poured out of the trains shouting: “Where are the communists, commissars, and Jews?!” — and immediately began robbing everyone indiscriminately, taking watches, wallets, and clothing. On the morning of September 2, shelling of the city suddenly began — from the outskirts, a Bolshevik detachment appeared and broke through to the very center. A few hours later the Bolsheviks were driven out, but soon ominous rumors began to spread: that Jews had allegedly thrown lit lamps at the Cossacks, that shots had supposedly been fired from some Jewish houses…
And that night, the pogrom began. Enraged Denikin troops smashed shops and apartments, looted and murdered Jews on a mass scale — in apartments, in courtyards, shooting them without trial. More than one hundred people were killed, among them the spiritual rabbi Menachem Khein, who enjoyed great authority…
For Peisach, as for thousands of other Jewish young men across Ukraine, the grim experience of the pogroms they had lived through became a powerful stimulus for seeking a national solution. The answer was the idea of returning to their historical homeland — to Eretz Israel, where Jews could build their own lives and, most importantly, defend themselves.
In 1922, the eighteen-year-old Peisach joined EVOSM — the Jewish paramilitary sports society “Maccabi.” For the young man, Zionism was not a theoretical doctrine. “Maccabi” taught discipline, physical endurance, and readiness to defend oneself — qualities that had previously been considered entirely “un-Jewish” in the diaspora. In 1923, he became an activist of the party “Tsairei Zion” (“Youth of Zion”) and the illegal “HeHalutz.” Peisach taught his comrades Hebrew and discussed with them the prospect of moving to Eretz Israel. It was a time of hopes that daily collided with the harsh reality of the Bolshevik dictatorship.
On July 31, 1926, Peisach Krasnogorsky was arrested by the Nizhyn District Department of the GPU. Along with him, the Chekists arrested Moisey Gelfand, Zyama Ioffe, the brothers Sholom and Berko Beilin, Osher Kaganer, and Alexander Lefand. All of them were young people from petty-bourgeois families — clerks and laborers — united by the study of Hebrew and dreams of resettlement in Eretz Israel. However, for the Bolsheviks all Zionist organizations were “anti-Soviet” — and Krasnogorsky and his comrades were charged under the corresponding article, Article 61 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR.
During interrogations, the arrested men denied their guilt. Some admitted that they had previously studied Jewish history and culture, but categorically rejected accusations of anti-Soviet activity. For example, Alexander Lefand stated that he had been a member of a Zionist organization for only two months in 1918, after which he maintained no contacts with Zionists. Osher Kaganer declared that he judged the activities of Zionists in Nizhyn solely “by the arrests carried out by the GPU at different times.”
As for Peisach Krasnogorsky, he limited himself to brief negative answers. He had already been involved in Zionism-related cases twice, in 1924 and 1925, and apparently developed a strategy: to remain silent, not to name anyone, and not to confess to what he had not done. Peisach understood that any confession would become a weapon against him and his comrades. Moreover, he even attempted to put pressure on the investigation himself, noting in a statement dated August 13 his prolonged detention without formal charges and threatening to file a complaint with the prosecutor. A similar statement was submitted by Moisey Gelfand.
Meanwhile, the investigation meticulously gathered evidence of the detainees’ guilt. There was no shortage of material evidence: during a search of Sholom Beilin’s apartment, the Chekists found journals “HeHalutz,” “Haaretz,” “Maccabi,” educational programs for Zionist self-training, instructions for district bureaus of “HeHalutz,” theses on settlement activity, and so on — more than one hundred items of printed material in total. Fragments of letters were found in the stove ash — evidently, Beilin had tried to destroy them in the brief moments between the knock on the door and the arrest.
But to complete the picture and to demonstrate to their superiors an exemplary investigation, the detectives lacked witness interrogations — especially since the arrested men showed remarkable composure and unanimity.
And the necessary testimony was obtained — or extracted. Twenty-four-year-old Isaac Rabinovich, a native of the shtetl of Borzna in the Konotop district, stated that Peisach Krasnogorsky was a committed Zionist and one of the leaders of the Nizhyn cell of “HeHalutz.” Krasnogorsky had urged Rabinovich to join “HeHalutz” and offered assistance in leaving for Palestine. According to Rabinovich, in the spring or early summer of 1926, a representative of the central committee of “HeHalutz” arrived in Nizhyn from Moscow (Rabinovich did not know his name). A special meeting of the Nizhyn district bureau was devoted to the visit of this important guest and was held at Krasnogorsky’s apartment. The meeting was attended by Peisach himself, Moisey Gelfand, Zyama Ioffe, the brothers Sholom and Berko Beilin, Osher Kaganer, Genya Lvova, Aron Feydinov, and “a number of other persons.” Rabinovich characterized all of them as committed Zionists who conducted agitation among working youth and fought against the influence of the Jewish Section of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Rabinovich’s testimony was confirmed by Ilya Bely, an unemployed resident of Nizhyn, born in 1898. Unlike Rabinovich, Bely himself had once been a member of “HeHalutz.” He stated that Peisach Krasnogorsky, as early as 1917, under the influence of his elder brother Solomon, joined the Zionist organization “Hashakhar.” The brother left for Palestine in 1924, and by that time Peisach had become one of the leaders of the Nizhyn cell of “HeHalutz.” Being a well-read man and a connoisseur of Jewish literature, he conducted Hebrew classes and enjoyed great authority both among his comrades in the organization and among non-party Jewish youth. Thanks to Peisach’s efforts, the Nizhyn cell of “HeHalutz” was regularly replenished with new members.
Eighteen-year-old Avraam Men was a member of the “HeHalutz” cell in the shtetl of Nosovka, not far from Nizhyn. He joined the organization in October 1925, and two months later became a witness to a visit by Peisach Krasnogorsky to the Nosovka Zionists. Krasnogorsky delivered a lecture to those gathered on the international situation and then tested their knowledge of Jewish literature and the geography of Palestine. Avraam Men also revealed the inner workings of the Zionists: he spoke about “aliyah” — the right to leave for Palestine granted to the most active and prepared members of the movement, and about the voluntary donation funds “Keren-Aliyah” (for those departing for Palestine) and “Keren-Ezra” (for arrested comrades).
Meanwhile, during a search at the home of Samuil Kinzbursky, one of the members of the Nosovka “HeHalutz” cell, the Chekists discovered a notebook. In it, Kinzbursky noted the weakness of the local organization due to the lack of capable leaders and the infrequent visits of experienced instructors — such as “Hag-Gamaytseis.” When the latter delivered a report, “something entirely different emerged. We would be very grateful to the R.B. (District Bureau) if it would send us such comrade instructors as Hag-Gamaytseis more often.” It is highly likely that this referred to Peisach Krasnogorsky, and that Hag-Gamaytseis was his underground alias.
The investigation lasted several months. The indictment stated that Krasnogorsky’s group was engaged in the illegal transfer of people abroad (that is, repatriation to Eretz Israel) and in the dissemination of “chauvinistic propaganda.”
The sentence was harsh: three years of exile to Turkestan, to the city of Poltoratsk (Ashgabat). For Peisach, with his anemia and weakened lungs, this threatened a slow death. At that dramatic moment, the young man’s fate seemed to hang in the balance…
And fortune smiled upon him: what the Zionists called a “miracle,” and the Soviet bureaucracy termed a “commutation of sentence,” took place. Under pressure from international organizations, primarily the “Political Red Cross” of Ekaterina Peshkova, the Soviet authorities at that time continued the practice of expelling Zionists abroad instead of imprisoning them. Peisach was among those whose sentence was “commuted.”
In 1927, twenty-three-year-old Peisach Krasnogorsky crossed the border into Eretz Israel. Behind him lay the Nizhyn prison, interrogations, fear, and uncertainty. Ahead was the land he had read about and dreamed of in the cramped rooms of his parents’ home on 1st Trotsky Street in Nizhyn. He was not traveling alone — with him were his comrades from the movement, the same young people who had decided to build a new life on an ancient land.
In Eretz Israel, he was met by his elder brother Solomon, who had left three years earlier and had already joined the pioneers laying the foundations of a settlement that would later become the city of Herzliya. Peisach immediately went there and joined the group “Mishmar ha-Sharon,” an agricultural collective developing the land in that area. Herzliya in those years was a modest settlement, where people were only beginning to build houses, lay roads, and plant citrus groves.
At first, Peisach was an ordinary laborer. He worked on the citrus plantations of Pardes-Rashal: picking oranges, digging the earth, carrying stones. The work was hard, but he knew: this was the very life for which he had endured so much — the life he had chosen himself and for which he had struggled. A life in which hope grows stronger, and around him are friends and like-minded people.
Peisach joined the movement “Ha-Poel Ha-Tzair” (“The Young Worker”) — a moderate socialist party close to the ideas of Labor Zionism. He was elected secretary of the Herzliya Workers’ Council — it was impossible not to notice his education and his ability to unite people.
In 1935, an important event took place in Peisach’s life: he married Yudit Marshov. Three children were born in their family: Ruth, Amram, and Nili. Now he had not only land, but also a home, and a future worth building.
Alongside his work in the council, he began cooperating with the Jewish Agency (“Sokhnut”) — an organization dealing with issues of immigration and land development. He worked in the Labor Department of the Jewish Agency under the leadership of Yitzhak Gruenbaum, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement. Gruenbaum, recognizing the abilities of the young activist, entrusted him with increasingly serious tasks.
In those same years, Peisach became a member of the “Haganah” — an underground military organization that defended Jewish settlements from attacks. For a man who had lived through the 1919 pogrom in Nizhyn, the opportunity to defend his home and his loved ones himself meant a great deal. At night he stood guard with a rifle on the outskirts of the settlements, protecting his comrades, and during the day he continued his constructive work.
After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Minister of the Interior Yitzhak Gruenbaum appointed Peisach Ifkhar (as his Hebraized surname was now rendered) director of the department of local authorities in the Ministry of the Interior. The former Nizhyn Zionist, who had passed through GPU prisons, was now responsible for the development of cities and towns throughout Israel!
In 1960, an event occurred in the life of Peisach Ifkhar that became the pinnacle of his public activity. The settlement of Herzliya, which he remembered from the days when it was only beginning to be built up, was granted city status. And its first mayor was elected to be Peisach Ifkhar himself — a man who had started there as a simple laborer on citrus plantations.
For six years, from 1960 to 1966, Peisach Ifkhar headed the Herzliya City Council. Those were years of intensive development: new neighborhoods were built, roads were laid, schools and kindergartens were opened. From a modest settlement, Herzliya was gradually turning into one of the most beautiful cities in Israel.
After leaving the post of mayor, Peisach did not retire. He worked in an advisory capacity in the department of local authorities at the Ministry of the Interior, passing on his experience and knowledge to new generations of administrators. Peisach Ifkhar was loved for his wisdom, calmness, and remarkable ability to find common ground with very different people — from veteran kibbutz members to new immigrants who were only beginning to settle into the country.
In 1985, Peisach Ifkhar passed away. He died in Herzliya — the city that had become his home. He was 81 years old. Today, one of the streets of Herzliya bears Ifkhar’s name — a worthy reminder of a man who went from a Nizhyn manual laborer, arrested three times for Zionism, to the first mayor of a beautiful Israeli city.
23.03.2026
Author: Mikhail Krivitsky
Translated by Lena Lores
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Peisach Ifkhar
1904 – 1985
