Who do you support?
You support a family project to document and commemorate the story of our father Ithamar. His life story is interwoven with the history of the Yishuv in Palestine (he is a 7th generation descendant), from his father’s death at the King David Hotel explosion to his retirement as the head of the IDF education branch.
My name is Aviad, I’m Ithamar’s second son.
What is my background?
I was born in 1972 and grew up in Kibbutz Hazorea. I did military service in the Navy in Haifa and then at the Marine Control Unit in the Kerya, Tel Aviv. After 6 years of service I moved to London and completed my training as a dental technician. Today I live with my wife and two children in Ireland. For a living, I work as a content editor at PayPal and study for a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Why did we choose to publish the book?
We chose to publish it because we thought it important to write our father’s life story for the family and for the hundreds of people who knew him throughout his life. We also thought that his life story deserves to be written in the broader dimension of Israeli society today. We are all aware of the narrative of remembering and not forgetting about what happened to our families in Europe, but there is also a tendency to forget about the events that preceded the establishment of the state and how they affected individuals in Israeli society, especially regarding painful and sensitive events such as the explosion of the King David Hotel by the Irgun and the sinking of the Altalena ship by Hagana/IDF.
A little about my father:
My father was born in Jerusalem in 1935. His mother’s family emigrated to Jerusalem in 1811 from Kidanya, Lithuania. His father, who immigrated from Ukraine and worked as a barrister was the assistant to the legal draftsman for the British Palestine mandate, was killed at the King David Hotel explosion in Jerusalem in July, 1946. My father spent the rest of his childhood in New York and returned after graduating from a Yeshiva University straight to Golani Battalion 51. He later served in the Education Corps and was overseeing the project known as Raphael (Raful) Boys. As a culture and entertainment officer of the Sinai Peninsula, he was responsible for organizing artists such as Yaffe Yarkoni and raising donations from American Jews (via the Bond) during the War of attrition. When he retired from the IDF in 1980, he served as the head of the IDF education branch.
I would like to add a little taste of one of my father’s stories, but the story is still waiting to be written.
My father is 85 and has cancer. This is why we appeal to you and because we thought that his story was worthy of being written by a professional.
Join us and it will only be thanks to you that the book will be written and published!
Anyone who supports the book writing project will receive an appropriate recognition for their generous contribution at the opening of the book. I will also send you a copy of the book immediately when it becomes available with the personal thanks of my father and his signature.
