For 30 years, Zohar Aviv has been known for children’s books about hope, healing, and resilience, including "Yad HaFala" and "Koach HaMoach." Now she is speaking publicly about the painful family story that shaped her writing, especially her younger brother Meni, who lived with severe mental distress that the family believed may have been connected to post-trauma, but he refused to be diagnosed or accept help.
Aviv says she began documenting Meni’s words and moments in notebooks when she was 15, long before she understood how deeply that bond influenced her path as a writer. Growing up in Moshav Udim in a household of Holocaust survivors from Tripoli, she felt pressure to please others and often escaped into imagination. She recalls that writing became the place where she could change reality, turning rejected children into accepted ones and rewriting the harm she experienced. A turning point came after a bully slapped her on the way to the grocery store, and she ran home to write from fear and a wish to disappear. That notebook later became the basis for the "Koach HaMoach" series.
Her career began taking shape after her first son was born, when she wrote about a rejected 16-year-old named Zvolun and sent the story to the youth paper "Rosh 1." The editor asked to speak with Zvolun, then realized he was fictional and signed her. She later received letters from teenage girls saying, "Zvolun, we love you even though you are ugly," which, she says, healed her. She also created "Havurat Splinter," which became "Havurat Koach HaMoach," and later heard from hundreds of children who formed groups in schools inspired by the books.
While her books taught children to cope, the family kept Meni’s condition secret, even from extended relatives. Aviv volunteered at the "Milm" center to learn how to help families dealing with mental illness, and she used those tools in "Yad HaFala," which focuses on accepting difference. About a year ago, after a long struggle, Meni took his own life. Aviv says she felt sadness and also relief that his suffering had ended, and that she saw peace on his face. Two weeks later, her mother died on Aviv’s birthday, making the date painful for her ever since.
After Meni’s death, Aviv says old notebooks showed her that he had been central to her identity as a writer, noting that she had recorded his words since he was four. She continues to write about children facing diabetes, attention difficulties, allergies, and emotional challenges, and she volunteers with Shachar Grinshpan, who was left paralyzed except for one finger after a car accident at age 12 and has published two poetry books by typing with that finger. Aviv says, "Shachar gives me perspective and strength," and adds that her goal is to promote awareness and self-acceptance.
