In 1936–1937, he was active in the Zionist movement in Palestine, then under the control of the British mandate, and worked with Golda Meir.
His mother, Sterna (Schneerson), was from a Belarusian Jewish family, was a niece of essayist Ahad Ha'am, and had worked for Chaim Weizmann.
His father, Berthold Feiwel, from a Moravian Jewish family, was an executive director of Keren Hayesod.
[1] Fyvel first met George Orwell in January 1940 when their mutual publisher, Fredric Warburg, introduced the two men.
Although Orwell did not agree with the proposed independent Jewish state in Palestine, they became friends and sometimes met at Warburg's home in Reading.