Yisrael Aviram (Kalisky) was born in 1926 in the city of Lodz, Poland. He was thirteen years old when the Second World War broke out. In 1940, Yisrael and his family were forcibly deported to the city's ghetto, where he joined a Zionist youth group. In August 1944, he was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Yisrael's mother was murdered there, and his sister was sent to a labor camp. He was transported, along with his father, to the Jaworzno concentration and labor camp, where they performed forced labor mining coal. In January 1945, the two were liberated in the Blechhammer concentration camp. After reuniting with Yisrael's sister Henia, and following two months of wandering through Europe, the three arrived at the La Spezia port in Italy, as part of the Bonei Hanegev group. In 1946 they immigrated to Israel, arriving upon the Dov Hoz illegal immigrant ship, and were among the founders of the Ramot Menashe kibbutz. Yisrael has three children and nine grandchildren.