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Arie Reiter lit one of six torches at the State Opening Ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem in 2025.
Arie Reiter
Arie Reiter
Arie Reiter was born in the town of Vaslui, Romania, in 1929, the firstborn son in an Orthodox, Hasidic family of five. His parents, Lazer (Eliezer) and Tova Bella, owned a restaurant and a small inn. Arie attended the Aseh Tov Jewish school and the local Talmud Torah (Orthodox Jewish elementary school).
In 1940, the antisemitic Romanian regime shut down Arie’s school. His family was dispossessed of the inn and had to move into a wooden warehouse. Lazer was sent to a Romanian forced labor camp, where he died in 1943. Arie and his younger brothers, Binyamin and Moshe, worked in stores to support themselves and their mother, and frequently went hungry.
In January 1944, Arie was sent along with dozens of other children to a labor camp near the town of Runcu, Romania, where he was put to work paving a road in the forest and constructing a wooden bridge over the river, which exists to this day. Cold and starving, he slept on a wooden bunk in an abandoned cowshed. The children were expected to meet a daily labor quota, and those who didn’t succeed were brutally flogged. Arie’s friends sometimes took pity on him and gave him a slice of bread from their meager rations.
The Red Army reached the area in August 1944 and liberated the camp. Arie walked the 80 kilometers back to Vaslui barefoot, while Soviet planes strafed overhead. He weighed 30 kilograms on his return to the town. Reunited with his family, they lived together in the cellar of a relative’s home, as their house had been destroyed in the bombing.
Arie graduated from the Trade and Economics School. He joined the Bnei Akiva youth movement, becoming head of the Vaslui branch, collected money for the Jewish National Fund, and was active in the Youth Aliyah. In 1947, he sent his two brothers to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) on the Ma’apilim (illegal immigrants) ship Pan York, but he remained in Romania to assist with the immigration campaign, as per the request of the Zionist leadership. Arie immigrated to Israel in 1951, where he was reunited with his mother and brothers in Be’er Sheva.
Arie worked in the Finance Ministry and then for Mizrahi bank. Rising through the ranks, he eventually became the bank’s deputy director. At the same time, he gained both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Jewish history.
Arie served as a member of the religious council in Be’er Sheva, treasurer of the Negev museum, and city councilman. He assisted in the establishment of the Bnei Akiva yeshiva (Talmudical college) Ohel Shlomo in Be’er Sheva and the Naot Avraham high school in Arad. One of the founders of the Struma synagogue, he has served as its beadle for over sixty years. In an effort to increase awareness of the Ha’apala (illegal immigration) movement among today’s youth, he established the Struma Museum, visited annually by dozens of groups of IDF soldiers and youth. In 2002, Arie was given the Yakir Ha’ir (honored citizen) award, in recognition of his wide-ranging community service in Be’er Sheva.
Arie and Yehudit have five children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.