Hannah Trager

Hannah Barnett-Trager (born Hannah Barnett) (1870–1943) was an English writer and activist. She resided and worked primarily in Mandatory Palestine. Her father, Zerah Barnett, established the city of Petah Tikva

Personal life

Trager was born in London, but emigrated with her parents to Jerusalem (then in the Ottoman Empire) in December 1871 when she was one year old. Her father, Zerah Barnett, was born in Lithuania in 1843 and came to London in 1864 to marry Rachel Leah Ha'Cohen and settled there establishing a successful factory for fur products, gaining British citizenship in October 1871. Being a devout Zionist, he believed in the return of the Jewish people to their original homeland after their expulsion 2000 years earlier. He travelled many times to Palestine to acquire lands and establish Jewish communities and returned to London 15 times in his lifetime, each time to acquire further wealth to buy more land. He was one of the founders of Mea Shearim, a Jewish community outside the city walls of Jerusalem and later the first Jewish agricultural community Petah Tikva, where the family lived from the mid-1870s to 1890. In 1890 the family moved to Jaffa where Hannah's father acquired land to found Neve Shalom, a Jewish neighbourhood in Jaffa, where he lived with his family for the rest of his life.

In 1887, after one of the family visits to London, Hannah remained when the others returned to Palestine. She married businessman Israel Gottman in 1888 and had two daughters; Gottman died young after business problems and bankruptcy affected his health. She supported herself and her daughters by working as a midwife, and married Joseph Trager, a chemist who was later incapacitated through tuberculosis. In 1911 her daughter Rose died aged 18 or 19, and her daughter Sarah committed suicide in 1924 aged 34 or 35. Sarah had suffered from malaria and neuritis after nursing in Palestine and later been diagnosed with consumption, had spent time in a mental hospital, and was determined to take her own life. Trager was initially charged with Sarah's murder by suicide pact, but was found not guilty in February 1925. She was also charged with attempted suicide, and pleaded guilty, but the judge bound her over with no other punishment. He said "You were the victim of misfortune. You are in every sense of the word a good and worthy woman of remarkable attainments. You have been dogged throughout life by the worst of bad luck. I hope that there will be a bright future in store for you."