For 30 years, children have grown up on the stories of Zoher Aviv, the Israeli author behind books such as “Yad HaPele” and “Koach HaMoach.” In a new interview published June 21, 2026, she says the themes of hope, healing and acceptance in her work were shaped by a far darker home life, including her brother Meni’s struggle with post-traumatic stress and possible additional mental illness.
Aviv says her writing began in childhood in Moshav Udim, in a strict household shaped by her parents, Holocaust survivors from Tripoli, and by her own fear of “what the neighbors will say.” She describes herself as a “pleasing child” who escaped into imagination, where she could rewrite reality. A turning point came when a bully slapped her on the way to the grocery store. She ran home, opened a notebook and began writing out of paralyzing fear. That notebook later became the basis for the “Koach HaMoach” series.
Her career took off after the birth of her first son, when she wrote about a rejected 16-year-old named Zvolon and sent the story to the youth paper “Rosh 1.” An editor asked to speak with Zvolon, realized he was fictional, and signed her. Letters from teenage readers saying, “Zvolon, we love you even though you are ugly,” helped her, she says, and later she created “Havurat Splinter,” which became “Havurat Koach HaMoach.”
At home, however, Meni withdrew after his army service, refused help and would not accept a diagnosis. Aviv says the family suspected PTSD and another serious psychological problem, but kept it secret even from extended relatives. She later volunteered at “Milam,” a service for families of people with mental-health difficulties, and used those tools in “Yad HaPele,” which teaches acceptance of difference. About a year ago, after a long struggle, Meni took his own life. Two weeks later, Aviv’s mother died on her birthday. Aviv says seeing her old notebooks made her realize Meni had been central to her writing from the start, because she had been recording his words since she was 15 and he was 4.
