Edna Solodar

Edna Solodar was born in 1930 in Ashdot Ya'akov

Edna Solodar was born on 15 March 1930 to Yitzhak Cohen and Liza Cherkassky and grew up in kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov. She learned piano from a young age and finished high school within the kibbutz.

She joined the Haganah and served as a signaler during the War of Independence. After the war she studied music and piano at the conservatory in Tel Aviv. She then taught music in the Jordan Valley for about 20 years.

In 1950 she married Razi Solodar, and in 1953 she moved to kibbutz Gesher, where she lived until her death. She served as secretary of Gesher and, from 1972, as Internal Affairs secretary of the Kibbutz HaMeuhad movement.

She entered the Knesset in January 1982, replacing Moshe Harif, and was re-elected in 1984 and 1988. She served as an Alignment whip and acted against Meir Kahane, and in 1987 she founded a lobby for Jonathan Pollard with Geula Cohen. She lost her seat in 1992.

From 1992 to 1998 she chaired the United Kibbutz Movement. She died on 9 April 2024, and a day later her family learned she had won the 2024 Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement.