Muyal (Moyal), Avraham
MUYAL (Moyal), AVRAHAM
MUYAL (Moyal), AVRAHAM (1847–1885), representative of Ḥovevei Zion in Ereẓ Israel. Born in Rabat, Morocco, Muyal went to Ereẓ Israel with his parents in 1860, becoming a wealthy merchant and banker. As a French national, he had close ties with the French consul in Jaffa. He also had considerable influence in Turkish government circles and was treated with respect by the Arab population, with whose customs and way of life he was well acquainted. Muyal did much to help Jewish settlement and obtained a permit to build houses at Ekron. He was also entrusted with financial dealings by Baron Edmond de *Rothschild concerning the settlements of Ekron and Rishon le-Zion. In 1885 Muyal was appointed as the Ḥovevei Zion representative. He built houses and established farms in Petaḥ Tikvah and put the settlement on a sounder basis. In the *Bilu settlement Gederah, where it was forbidden to build houses, he secured shelter for the settlers by rapidly erecting a structure of wooden boards and covering it with a roof. Under Turkish law, destruction was thereupon illegal.
bibliography:
I. Klausner, Mi-Katoviẓ ad Basel, 1 (1965), 84–89, 150–62, index; A. Druyanow, Ketavim le-Toledot Ḥibbat Ẓiyyon ve-Yishuv Ereẓ Yisrael, 1 (19252), 546–9, index; S.P. Rabinowitz (ed.), Keneset Yisrael, 1 (1886), 934–9.
[Israel Klausner]