Rachel Rabin-Yaakov, Sister of Yitzhak Rabin and Pioneer Educator, Dies at 101

Rachel Rabin-Yaakov, a prominent educator and one of the founders of Kibbutz Menara, passed away at the age of 101. She was the younger sister of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin-Yaakov was a key figure in the "Halutzim" (pioneers) generation of 1948 and a central personality in Israeli settlement education. Born in Tel Aviv to Rosa and Nehemia Rabin, she moved to Kibbutz Menara in the Upper Galilee in 1943 after training at Tel Hai and Kfar Giladi. During the 1948 War of Independence, she remained at the isolated kibbutz, defending the settlement and caring for the wounded under attack.

Throughout her life, Rabin-Yaakov dedicated herself to education and public leadership. She served as the first teacher in Menara, co-founded the "Har Ve'Gei" regional school in Dafna, and supervised the settlement education department at the Ministry of Education. Later, she led the "Oranim" and "Seminarium Givatayim" academic colleges for education and served multiple terms as the kibbutz secretary.

She was married to Rafi Yaakov, with whom she raised three children: Tirtza, Yiftach, and Gad. They also raised their adopted son, Binyamin Jedidi, who fell in the Yom Kippur War. Rabin-Yaakov received numerous education awards for her lifelong contributions and was recognized as a "Yekirat Ha'Mishlavot" (honored figure) by the academic colleges in the north.