He graduated from high school in Warsaw, studied languages at the Sorbon, in Paris (during the stormy days of Emile Zola’s era), spoke 7 foreign languages and was as a certified translator at the district court in his hometown of Radom (80,000 residences, half of them Jews).
He was elected - as the first Jew ever- to be a member of the Radom city council, founded an educational Jewish high school in Radom (where we all had our matriculation finales in Polish and Hebrew). He was the head of the Jewish community and the Zionist organisation in Radom and a member of its central committee in Warsaw.
His Many activities in the community institutions, as well as his daily responsibilities (including his loving assistance to our mother who lost her eyesight at 30), his generous help to the needy Jews of Radom with advice and moral support - did not prevent him from giving us - his children - the best of his time to shape our characters and even to help us in our schoolwork.
Still before his "Aliya" in 1935 (that was also a fulfillment of his father’s dream), he helped many thousands of his town’s people to go to Eretz Yisrael - amongst them single pioneers and complete families.
Upon his "Aliya", he continued his traditional humanitarian activities for the benefit of the society and the individuals; he worked to improve the lot of the Zionist veterans, headed their organization "Brit Rishonim", founded the first Radomer Landsmanschaft ("Irgun Yotsei Radom") in Israel - and this while working on a full-time job as a salaried auditor in order to support his family.
A great disaster fell on our family about the time my father arrived here, when his beloved, highly gifted son, Israel Gabriel, passed away (in Radom) at 22. He considered him to be his intellectual and spiritual heir, and he did not recover from this terrible blow till the last day of his life.
Marrying Zipora Szwarc - Cesia - not only did my father find a true and bright spouse, worthy of himself, not only joined the remarkable Szwarc family, but he won the best friend of his life in his wife’s father- Issaschar Szwarc, who became a partner and a comrade to his views and convictions, and his national ideals.
Their deep mutual love brought about a fruitful dialogue, that lasted almost forty years, as well as a rich correspondence (in Hebrew), that touched upon family matters, actual problems and events, their Zionist and literary activities and philosophical contemplation.
The exchange of letters went on (as far as I can remember) still in the first days of September 1939, when the last letter of our grandfather reached us in Tel Aviv. Amongst hundreds of grandfather’s letters (kept religiously by my father), were some letters written by his "brothers-in-law", our uncles Shmuel and Simcha.
The warm and intense family connections, nurtured by father with all the branches of the Szwarc family (which was dispersed in Europe and Canada), went on continuously till the end of his life. My parents met uncle Shmuel and uncle Marek for the last time in Paris in 1952, just one year before my father’s death.
The family members of this branch of the Frenkiel-Szwarc union, who remain in Israel and reside in the city of Holon are: my wife, Rachel, an artist (a Painter) and a retired art teacher and myself, Emmanuel, a retired elctro-engineer. I have worked in that capacity for 60 years, first under the British mandate in the RAF and then, in the independent State of Israel during my service in the Israeli Defense Forces and upon my retirement from the IDF - in the Ministry of Defense.
Our first born son, Gabriel, who was to immortalize the name and memory of his deceased uncle, died as a young man. He was a member of Lahav, a kibbutz in the Negev, where his wife Bracha is still living. Their son, Alon and wife Sharona have both studied and are working in Hi-Tech. They live in Rishin Lezion (not far from Holon) with their two children - our first great grandchildren.
A daughter, Netta, unmarried, works as a hydrotherapist with handicapped people. Our second son, David Issaschar, is a retired IDF major, studied engineering, and is employed as manager in charge of mechanical equipment maintenance in a large printing plant. He, and his wife Ruchama, who is a business administration instructor live one flour above us, in a common family cottage.
They have two sons: the first born, Tamir, a BA in Political Science and Geography, and his girl friend Gittit, both work in education, he is training youth in scientific occupations, she is a special education teacher.
Their second son, Ofir, just released from his army service, is still wondering about his future plans.
