About Yael

16.02.1973 – 1.1.1998

 

 

Yael Meivar is the leading author of "My Life Is Based on a True Story".

She was the 8^th generation born in Safed, Israel and a granddaughter to Meir Meivar who had been the commander of the "Hagana" in the city during the War of Independence and of his wife Sara, who was one of the commanders of the "Etzel" resistance cell in the city.

 Yael was also grandchild to Rachel and Mordechai (Söke) Morgenstern - Shahar, who survived the holocaust and saved many Jews from the Nazis by smuggling them across the smoldering borders of Europe.

 

Yael skipped grade at "Ilanot" primary school in Haifa, then joined a class for gifted children at "Leo Baeck Education Center" first in Junior high then high school.

 

Yael's passion was the Hebrew Bible and the History of the Land of Israel.

That love led her to track down two of her ancestors; Rabbis Mordechai and Rafael Zilberman, of whom she chose to write her final thesis. Through that work about her great grandfathers, Yael highlighted the contribution of the orthodox Jewish community to the revival and building of Eretz Israel, the homeland.

 

This work granted Yael with two presidents' awards: President Ben Zvi  award, and a Zalman Shazar award.

 

Her Tutor, Prof. Jacob Barnai, Dept. of Jewish History and Dept. of the Land of Israel Studies, at the Haifa University, placed that paper along side with the great contemporary history studies of Eretz Israel.

 

Her love to the written word did not end with the Bible; Yael's other great love was Literature: She collected books from every possible source - even off the streets - such which had been cast away by libraries and other people.

 

She even wrote herself; first in "Gnat" - a self made humoristic magazine which she composed, illustrated and distributed between her friends and class mate, then as a writer to "Alternative"; a humoristic magazine of a Haifa local newspaper.

Through "Alternative" she shared with her readers the adventures of Private Yael; a new recruit of the IDF, up until her activities in the army made it no longer possible to reveal her deeds to the public.

Yael served in the IDF as a Lieutenant in the Northern District Adjutancy Corps.

 

Soon after her discharge, she took Law in the Hebrew University at Jerusalem, and voluntarily taught disabled children in "Alin" Hospital as part of the "Perah" scholarship-incentive-project.  

During her second and third years of studying, she worked as an assistant to Hovav Artzi –  Senior Deputy to the State Attorney in the Criminal and Supreme Court Prosecution Department.

 

Yael married Yoram Doctori in 1996, and did her internship with Nurit Shnit's – The Central Region Attorney.

She took additional jobs, and taught gifted children in Ariel College, as well as adults in other colleges.

Being true to her commitment to the security of the land, she also volunteered to the National Guard with her husband.

 

She was murdered a few months before taking the Bar exams.

 

The couple was shot at on January 1^st 1998, New Year's Eve, at 1 AM, as they returned to their home at Moshav Azarya.

 

An ambush had been laid by Palestinian terrorists on a curved road between the villages Burkin and A-dik. As the terrorists identified an Israeli car, they dazzled the couple with headlights and peppered their car with bullets. Yoram, an IDF paramedic, gave Yael first aid and sent for a helicopter, but she died five days later from her injuries.

 

Yael's death, which followed the murder of Gabriel Hirschberg ended a short period of  relative calm and blew up the euphoria and the expectation for real peace that Israelis believed Oslo Peace Accord had  promised to bring.