Levy, Zwick

Zwika Levy was born in Kibbutz Guat in 1948; his parents were repatriates - father Benjamin from Baku, and his mother Rivka from Plotnitsa (Poland, now Belarus). Zwick received a name in honor of his grandfather on the part of his mother, who died in Auschwitz in 1942 ^[4] . In 1954, the Levy family was among the founders of the kibbutz Yefat , where she lived since then ^[5] . In high school, Zwick was a volunteer in neighboring Migdal HaEmek as part of the Ha Noar Ha-Oved Veha-Lomed movement (Working and Learning Youth); his family in these years has repeatedly taken patronage of children from needy families and children with poor health ^[4] .

In 1966, Zwick was drafted into the army , military service took place in the 202nd battalion of the Tsanghanim brigade . He participated in the Six Day War , during which his battalion with the battle took Gaza , having suffered significant losses. Upon completion of the active service, Levy returned to Yefat, where he was engaged in various chores and at the same time continued to volunteer, including helping the soldiers from poor families as part of the reservist service , helping them collect food for relatives ^[4] .

In 1973, Levy as a reservist participated in the Doomsday War , taking part in the battles for the Suez Canal ^[4] ; in connection with the aggravation of the situation, he was called up for reservist service for 180 days ^[5] . Even before the war ended, he married Naomi Suto, having received a four-day dismissal for his wedding ^[4] . In a marriage with Naomi, Zwiki later had five children (they lost one of their daughters at the age of eight months due to sudden infant death syndrome ) ^[6] .

Numerous losses suffered by Israeli troops during the Yom Kippur War forced Levi to turn his efforts as a volunteer in a new direction: he began working with the families of the dead soldiers. In 1982, he again took part in the Lebanon war as part of the reservist service; the following year, he received an offer to join the Tsanghanim brigade fund to help soldiers' widows and orphans ^[5] , and thereby from a single volunteer to become part of a mass volunteer initiative. From the same year, Levy expanded his activities in support of single soldiers. In 1995, this aspect of his work acquired official status: the head of the personnel department of the Israel Defense Forces Yoram Yair appointed Levi as the project manager for supporting single soldiers from the kibbutz youth and volunteers from abroad. From this moment, Levy left all other classes, fully focusing on the organization of the project ^[4] . As part of its activities, 18 thousand volunteer soldiers from 45 countries received a temporary family in Israel or were adopted in one of 150 kibbutzim who collaborated with the IDF on this issue ^[5] . Zwick Levy himself received the nickname "father of all single soldiers" ^[7] , in 1997 he received the honorary medal of the President of Israel for volunteering ^[5] .

In 2006, during the days of the Second Lebanon War , Zwick Levy, at the age of 58, was again called up for the reservist service, throughout the war, liaising between single soldiers and their families abroad ^[5] . In the last years of his life, he suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , gradually losing the ability to control his own body due to muscle atrophy ^[6] . Despite the illness, Levy, chained to a wheelchair, continued his social activities, in particular, working on the children's book “Happy Ending - From the Stories of Grandpa Zwicky”, which he wrote with the help of eye muscles, the latter that he could still control ^[3] .

In 2016, Zwick Levy was awarded the honorary military rank of Aluf Mishne ^[5] . The following year, he became a laureate of the Israel Prize for special services to society and the state. Levy died in December 2018, not living two weeks before his 71st birthday, and was buried in kibbutz Yefat. Work on the book "Happy Ending" he completed a week before his death ^[3] .

• Zwick Levy on the Israel Prize website (Hebrew) : biography , work of life , arguments of the panel of judges