The BiG Story

• Past and present IDF chiefs of staff:
Shaul Mofaz (1998 to present)

1 • The first officers of the IDF were
sworn in on June 27, 1948.

Amnon Lipkin-Shahak

(1995-1998)
i • In addition to serving the
Ehud Barak (1991-1995)
.1 defense needs of Israel, the IDF
Dan Shomron (1987-1991)
has participated in numerous
Moshe Levy (1983-1987)
1 humanitarian missions, including
1 Rafe! Eitan (1978-1983)
most recently an assignment in
Mordechai Gur (1974-1978)
Macedonia in April 1999.
David Elazar (1972-1974)
•
Chaim Bar-Lev (1968-1972)
• Following completion of their basic
Yitzhak Rabin (1964-1968)
training, front-line soldiers in the IDF
often meet at the Kotel (Western Wall)
Zvi Tzur (1961-1964)
in Jerusalem for their swearing-in cere-
Chaim Laskov (1958-1961)
mony. Here, they receive a sefer
Moshe Dayan (1953-1958)
Torah and insignia for their regiment.
Mordechai Maklef (1952-1953)
Entering the old city of Jerusalem, following its libera-
In honor of Yom HaZikaron, you may
Yigael Yadin (1949-1952)
tion in 1967, are Commander General Uzi Narkiss,
want to write a prayer for the well
Yaakov Dori (1948-1949)
defense minister, the late Moshe Dayan and IDF
being of Israeli soldiers to be placed
Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin.
• A Web site, where you can buy
at the Kotel. You can do this, as well
actual
equipment used by the IDF, is
tion).
With
the
Defense
Army
of
Israel
as see live images of the Kotel, by
• In pre-State Israel, various Jewish
now under construction. If you're look-
Ordinance No. 4, David Ben-Gurion,
defense organizations worked inde-
going to www.kotelkam.com
ing for that perfect tank, this might be
Israel's
first
prime
minister,
created
the
pendently. They included the
just the spot for you. Keep checking
first organization that combined all the i • Among the wars and other cam-
Hagana, Palmach, Lehi (Lohamei
at:
www.aai.business.israel.net
forces and established Israel's air,
Herut Israel, or Fighters for the Free-
paigns in which the IDF has par-
army and naval branches.
dom of Israel) and the IZL (Irgun Zevai
ticipated:
• Since the State% establishment,
Le'umi, National Military Organiza-
1 1948 — War of Independence
20,352 men and women have given

UJA Press Service/Don na Lee Goldberg

The Kotel is often a site for the swearing-in ceremony of the IDE

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126

• After active service, Israeli sol-
diers serve in the reserves until age
55. Until age 45, each is consid-
ered in active duty. After that, he
will serve in a less demanding job.
Women are in the reserves until
they turn 35 or marry.

• In 1996, the Israeli Air Force pilot
school admitted its first female cadets.

•
1 • The IDF Hierarchy:
Chief of General Staff
Financial Adviser and Vice Chief
of Staff
Plans and Policy Division, Operation
Division, Personnel Division,
Technology and Logistics Division,
ax at 011-
eat
97
Intelligence Division
2-3-569-6097:
Air Force, Navy, Army
Family information is sought about Rikva Aharonov, Esther Applebaum, Esther
Research and Development
Birnbaum, Sarah Canaani, Avraham Chaver, Shmuel Cohen, Zvi Eliyahu, Shi
Training and Doctrine Department
mon Fischel, Shimon Franko and Shabbtai Frenkel.
Military Colleges
Also, Raya Horowitz, Rachel Klimenik, Yosef Kangor, Moshe Kopel-Suriya,
Territorial Commands
Mordechai Khavinski, Dvora Kitelewicz, Binyamin Klar, Herbert Kramer, Dr. Fritz
Moses, Kalman Pittel, Avraham Rosenmacher, Yehudit Russo, David Shapira. ❑

n'W

2000

their lives for Israel.
• More than 1,700 Americans and
Canadian Jews volunteered to serve in
the Nagano, and Irgun. Of these, 31
died during battle.

1956 — Sinai Campaign
1967 — Six-Day War
1973 — Yom Kippur War
1976 — Rescue at Entebbe
in Uganda
1981 — Destruction of Iraqi
nuclear reactor
1982 — Operation Peace for Galilee
1987-1995 — The Intifada
1991 — Gulf War

• Yaakov Dori, first head of the IDF,
was born in 1899 in Odessa, Russia,
and moved to pre-State Israel in
1906. After high school, he served as
a sergeant with the Palestinian Battal-
ion of the Jewish Legion during World
War I. He studied engineering in Bel-
gium, then served with the Hagana.
He commanded the Haifa area for
eight years before becoming the
group's first chief of staff in 1939. Fol-
lowing his work with the IDF, he
served as president of the Technion-
Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa
from 1951-1965. ❑

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