Giora Epstein

Giora Epstein was born in 1938 in Negba

Giora Epstein was born on 20 May 1938 in kibbutz Negba to parents who came from Poland. As a child he watched air force planes over the kibbutz and wanted to fly. In high school he volunteered with a scouts unit at kibbutz Givat Brenner.

He joined the IDF in 1956, but a medical finding kept him out of flight school, so he became a paratrooper and later a parachuting instructor. He left the army in 1959 and returned after 3 years. During a parachute demonstration trip he changed his surname to Even, and he was later cleared for flight school.

He finished flight school with honors in 1963 and was sent to a helicopter squadron. After appealing to air force commander Ezer Weizman, he moved to fighter jets. He scored his first kill in the Six-Day War, 4 more in the War of Attrition and 12 in the Yom Kippur War.

He commanded 117 Squadron from 1974 and left regular service in 1977, then flew for El Al. As a reservist he converted to the F-16 in 1988. In 2018 he received the rank of brigadier general from chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.

He lived in Ramat HaSharon with his wife Sarah, and they had 3 children. Later in life he joined the pilots' protest movement. He died on 19 July 2025.