Aharon Hoter-Yishai

Aharon Hoter-Yishai was born in 1905 in Russian Empire

Aharon Khotorsky was born in the Russian Empire in 1905. He came to the Land of Israel as a child with his twin sister and older brother, and his parents and two other sisters followed. During World War I the family lived on a farm in Hadera, and afterward he studied at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv.

In 1926 he began studying law at the Mandatory Law School in Jerusalem, and in 1927 he took part in the Haganah's first commanders course. He became a lawyer in 1930 and worked in Haifa, where he defended many people in cases of illegal immigration and illegal weapons. His clients included Shlomo Ben-Yosef and Mordechai Schwarcz.

He joined the British Army in 1941, became an officer and later served in the Jewish Brigade. After the German surrender he helped Holocaust survivors in Europe move to Palestine. In the 1948 war he organized the judicial system of the 7th Armored Brigade and then became the IDF's first Chief Military Advocate General.

He presided over the retrial that found Meir Tobianski not guilty after his execution. After leaving the IDF he returned to law and sat on the investigative committee on the Kafr Qasim massacre. In 1961 he testified at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, and he died in 2003.