LIVNI, HILLEL

LIVNI, HILLEL (Slavko Weiss; 1906–1994), Zionist leader. Born and educated in Croatia, he lived in Zagreb, where he became a Jewish youth organizer and instructor. He was among the sponsors of a scouting group called Kibbutz ha-Zofim, with headquarters in Zagreb and chapters in several towns with Jewish populations. He also worked within the Federation of Jewish Youth Organizations, promoting the ḥalutzic (aliyah preparation) trend and was instrumental in the integration of Ha-Zofim into the Ha-Shomer ha-Ẓa'irworld movement. This movement was officially founded in Slavonski Brod in 1931, rapidly spreading across the country and becoming the largest body of organized Jewish youngsters in Yugoslavia. Livni was among the planners of seminars, summer camps, mountaineering units, and educational programs aiming at preparing future members of kibbutzim, having himself been among the founders of kibbutz Sha'ar ha-Amakim in the Haifa Bay area in the early 1930s. After his aliyah he was twice sent back to Yugoslavia as an emissary of his movement. In 1939, he participated as a delegate at the 21stZionist Congress in Geneva. In his kibbutz Livni performed various managerial duties. He also took part in the work of the Historical Commission of the Hitaḥdut (Association of Immigrants from Yugoslavia), assisting in research and editing. As an ardent philatelist, he accumulated an impressive collection. Shortly before his death he sold it, thus enabling the erection of a memorial monument in his kibbutz for Holocaust victims who were relatives of members of Sha'ar ha-Amakim. (Zvi Loker (2nd ed.)