GISSIN, AVSHALOM

GISSIN, AVSHALOM (1896–1921), pioneer in the military defense of the yishuv. Born in Petaḥ Tikvah, Gissin studied at the officers' school of the Turkish Army in Istanbul and Damascus. At the end of World War I he returned to Palestine and founded maccabi and the scout movement in Petaḥ Tikvah, where he schooled local youth in the use of arms. When Arab riots broke out in 1921, Gissin left his work as a surveyor in the south and returned to his home to organize the defense of the settlement. He was killed with three others in battle while defending Petaḥ Tikvah against armed Bedouins. Maccabi Avshalom, the Petaḥ Tikvah soccer team, is named after him. His grandfather, EPHRAIM GISSIN (1835–1898), born in   Mohilev, Belorussia, was an early member of Ḥovevei Zion and went to Ereẓ Israel in 1895, joining his three sons and daughter who had settled in Petaḥ Tikvah. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Tidhar, 2 (1947), 741–2, 770.