Hana Meisel

Hana Meisel was born in 1883 in Hrodna

Hana Meisel was born in 1883 in Grodno, then part of the Russian Empire. Her father Yitzhak traded in grain and furs, and she was the fourth daughter in a family of 6 girls and 5 boys. The children studied with private tutors and all knew Hebrew well.

In high school she was drawn to Zionism and joined Poale Zion in Grodno. She studied gardening in Switzerland and natural science at the university in Besançon, France. In 1909 she earned a doctorate in science with honors.

She immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1909, during the Second Aliyah. In 1911 she founded Havat HaAlamot, a farm school for girls at Kinneret that ran until 1917. In 1912 she married Eliezer Shohat of the Young Worker party, and the next year she was a delegate of that party to the 11th Zionist Congress.

From 1920 she served on the world executive of WIZO. She was among the founders of Nahalal, where she lived with her husband, and she set up the agricultural school for girls there, opened in 1929. She was also elected to the Assembly of Representatives and died in Nahalal in 1972.