Aaron Yoeli

Aaron Yoeli was born in 1929 in Haifa

Aaron Yoeli was born in Haifa in 1929, the elder of two children of Shoshana and Zalman Yoeli. His father was a journalist at Davar and a member of the Petah Tikva city council. Through his father he was a seventh-generation descendant of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad.

He grew up in Petah Tikva and studied at the agricultural school in Givat HaShlosha and at the Max Fein school in Tel Aviv. He helped found the Erez training group of HaNoar HaOved, and later joined Kibbutz Erez, staying a member until 1954.

In 1947 he joined the Palmach and fought as a squad commander in the War of Independence before moving to the Air Force. He finished pilot training in 1951 and commanded Squadrons 117 and 101 and the flight school at Tel Nof. He was wounded in Operation Kadesh in 1956 and made a crash landing, and he retired from service in 1970.

From 1970 to 1972 he managed the flight test center at Israel Aerospace Industries and worked as a test pilot. He then flew for El Al until 1989 and represented Israel at ICAO. He died in 2007.