How Moshe Hovav Discovered Young Haim Yavin’s Voice at Magen David Adom

In 1956, amid Jordanian gunfire targeting West Jerusalem, employees of Israel Broadcasting Authority were sent to a first aid course at a Magen David Adom facility for safety training. Among them was Moshe Hovav, then head announcer, who met a young paramedic named Haim Yavin, then known as Haim Kluger, who was studying at the Hebrew University and working shifts at Magen David Adom. When Yavin began instructing Hovav on first aid basics, Hovav immediately recognized Yavin’s distinctive voice and encouraged him to consider a career as a radio announcer at Kol Israel.

This chance encounter led Yavin to join the radio station weeks later, just before the outbreak of the Suez Crisis. With many broadcasters called to reserve military service, Yavin, who was not drafted, quickly gained experience reading news bulletins, launching his long career in Israeli media. The story was revealed by Avital Bendel, Yavin’s relative, a day after Yavin’s death at age 93, based on memoirs by her mother, Dr. Dina Goren, the first news editor at Kol Israel and a pioneer in Israeli broadcasting.

Bendel recounted how the shooting near the broadcasting facilities, which tragically killed a civilian woman, prompted the first aid training. The serendipitous meeting between Hovav and Yavin at the Magen David Adom center changed Yavin’s life trajectory from a paramedic student to one of Israel’s most iconic news figures. The anecdote highlights how Yavin’s voice was recognized early on by a professional who saw his potential, setting him on a path that would define Israeli news media for decades.