48 January 10 • 2019
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soul

of blessed memory

continued from page 47

MARSHA WOLF, 76, of 
Tampa, Fla., formerly of 
Farmington Hills, died 
Jan. 3, 2019. 
She is survived by her 
son, Steve Wolf; daugh-
ter, Shelli Meyerson; 
grandchildren, Alex, Garrett, Carli 
and Drew; brothers and sisters-in-law, 
Edwin and Loretta Adelman, Sheldon 
and Ann Adelman; brother-in-law 
and sisters-in-law, Billy and Georgann 
Wolf, Marilyn Wolf and Verna Wolf; 
loving nieces, nephews and friends. 
Mrs. Wolf was the beloved wife of 
the late Harvey Wolf; the dear sister-
in-law of the late Arthur Wolf; the 
devoted daughter of the late Sarah and 
the late Irving Adelman; the loving 
daughter-in-law of the late Eva and the 
late Max Wolf. 
Interment was at Machpelah 
Cemetery. Contributions may be 
made to a charity of one’
s choice. 
Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

Moshe Arens, Three-Time Defense Minister, Dies

JNS.ORG
F

ormer Israeli defense minister 
and mentor of Israeli Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 
passed away on Monday, Jan. 7, at the 
age of 93.
He is considered to be one of 
Benjamin Netanyahu’
s most for-
mative mentors, taking him to the 
Washington embassy in 1982 and 
appointing him deputy minister of 
the Foreign Ministry in 1988, the first 
high-level public service positions the 
young Netanyahu held.
Arens’
s family managed to escape 
the Holocaust by moving from 
Lithuania to the United States in 1939. 
A leader in the Beitar youth move-
ment of Ze’
ev Jabotinsky, Arens served 
in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 
during World War II but made aliyah 
in 1948 and joined the Irgun paramil-
itary organization, against the wishes 
of his parents.
A founding member of the right-
wing Herut political party, along 
with Menachem Begin, Arens then 
returned to the United States, study-
ing aeronautical engineering at MIT 
and Caltech and marrying his wife 

Muriel.
The couple returned to Israel, and 
Arens taught at the Technion. In 
1962, he was appointed deputy head 
of Israel Aircraft Industries, helping 
to develop the Israeli Kfir fighter jet 
and the Israeli Arava cargo plane, two 
projects which ultimately earned him 
the 1971 Israel Defense Prize.
Arens was elected to the Knesset as 
a member of the Likud Party in 1973, 
serving until 1992 and then again 
from 1999 to 2003.
Arens, critical of Israel’
s peace treaty 
with Egypt, refused a defense minister-
ship under Begin, instead became the 
Israeli Ambassador to the United States. 
He became Israel’
s Defense Minister 
in 1983, replacing Ariel Sharon, and 
served in that position three times over 
the course of his political career.
 
Arens is considered to be one of Israel 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’
s 
most formative mentors, taking him 
to the Washington embassy in 1982 
and appointing him deputy minister of 
the Foreign Ministry in 1988, the first 
high-level public-service positions the 
young Netanyahu held.
In a statement by Netanyahu, the 

prime minister called Arens “my 
teacher and master,
” and praised him 
as someone who “did wonders to 
strengthen Israel as our ambassador in 
Washington, as foreign minister, chair-
man of the Foreign Affairs and Defense 
Committee, and as defense minister 
time and again. … There was no greater 
patriot than him. Misha, I loved you as 
a son loves a father.
”
President Reuven Rivlin called Arens 
“one of the most important ministers of 
defense the State of Israel ever had. He 
was not a commander or a general, but 
a devoted man of learning who labored 
day and night for the safety of Israel and 
its citizens.
”
Across the political aisle, former 
Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog called 
Arens “an example of a clean and sin-
cere leader and public servant who 
always spoke his mind and contributed 
tremendously to Israel’
s security and 
standing among the nations of the 
world.
”
“Even when we disagreed, we 
respected each other,” he said.
Arens passed away at his home in 
Savyon, and leaves behind his wife, four 
children and nine grandchildren. ■