Alisa Fuss

Alisa Fuss (born Ilse Miodownik; 7 April 1919 – 20 November 1997) was a German-Israeli human rights activist and teacher. Born and raised in Berlin, in 1935 she moved to Mandatory Palestine where she supported the establishment of a Jewish state. After becoming disillusioned with Zionism following the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, she began volunteering with the Palestine Communist Party, serving custodial prison sentences in 1940 and between 1956 and 1960. After a period working as a teacher, Fuss returned to Germany in 1976, where she became a noted activist in support of the rights of Palestinians, as well as refugees and asylum seekers.

Early life and education Fuss was born on 7 April 1919 into a Jewish family living in Berlin, Germany. Her father, Jakob Miodownik, was the son of immigrants from Eastern Europe, while her mother, Erna , was from a middle-class family from Berlin. Between 1924 and 1925, Fuss' father converted the ground floor of the family home in Zehlendorf into a synagogue, due to there being no public synagogues in the local area.

From 1925, Fuss started her education at the Familienschule Zehlendorf-West, a non-denominational private school. From 1929, she attended the VI. Städtischen Lyzeums in Charlottenburg until the family moved to Breslau later that year, following which she enrolled at the local lyceum.

While in Breslau, Fuss became acquainted with the local Jewish youth movement, and joined the Jung-Jüdischen Wanderbund , an increasingly socialist organisation. Fuss left the local lyceum when she was told to use the Nazi salute, and spent a year at the Jüdischen Gymnasium, a Jewish gymnasium, before leaving in 1934 to begin an apprenticeship as a painter. At around this time, Fuss began identifying as a Zionist, which she later attributed to being "because of Hitler... but also out of conviction".

Rejection of Zionism and embrace of communism After moving to Jerusalem, Fuss felt that her political ideas had been "betrayed" following the response of Zionist organisations to Arabs during the revolt, and began to reject Zionism, which she saw as working oppressively and collaboratively with British Mandate authorities, which she deemed to be "colonial", to expel and displace Arab Palestinians in favour of their Jewish counterparts. Fuss joined the Palestine Communist Party (PKP), where she first met her future husband, Chaim Preschel. During the Arab revolt, the British Mandatory government officially banned the PKP; in 1940, Fuss was arrested while taking part in a PKP operation and was placed into administrative detention without charge or conviction for a year. Fuss argued that she argued for Palestinian rights due to her standing for "humanity, solidarity, and against oppression" for Israelis as well as Palestinians.

That same year, Fuss was invited to speak before War Resisters' International, where she gave a presentation on Jewish pacifists and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During this time, she began working with Ossip K. Flechtheim.

During her time in Germany, Fuss also co-founded the Flüchtlingsrates Berlin , which in 1989 was awarded Gustav Heinemann Citizens' Prize in recognition for its work; she likened the plight of refugees to Jews fleeing the Holocaust. In 1982, Fuss chained herself to the building housing the Berlin Senate Department for Justice and Consumer Protection to protest the planned deportation of a Turkish asylum seeker Cemal Kemal Altun and, alongside Flechtheim, appealed to the musician Yehudi Menuhin and Pope John Paul II to intervene on Altun's behalf. Fuss felt that the fight against antisemitism should be linked with the fight against racism and xenophobia, and described her support of Altun and other asylum seekers as being "solidarity between a former victim of persecution and a current victim of persecution".

Return to Israel and death In 1997, experiencing worsening health, Fuss returned to Israel, settling in Tel Aviv where her children lived. She died on 20 November 1997 at the age of 78. Fuss' personal archives are stored at the Fritz Bauer Institut in Frankfurt.