Rose Agriss was born and raised in Poland, near Vilna, Lithuania. In 1932 she immigrated to the United States and moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where her father lived, a father she had not met before her arrival in America. Her mother had died when she was three.
In 1947, when visiting a cousin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she was introduced to a young labor Zionist, Leon Agriss. They married in late July of that year.
In September 1947 they sailed to Palestine aboard the “Marine Carp.” They lived through the siege of Jerusalem along with their close friends, Frieda and David Macarov. Together they fought with the Haganah, and later in the IDF in the defense of Jerusalem.
In November 1949 their daughter Rina was born, and they remained in Israel until the fall of 1950, when they returned to the U.S.A.
Source: American Veterans of Israel Newsletter: Summer 2004