Haim Yavin

Haim Yavin was born in 1932 in Bytom

Yavin was born Heinz Kluger in Beuthen, Germany, now Bytom in Poland. His family moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1933. The relatives who stayed behind were killed at Auschwitz in the Holocaust.

He attended high school in Kiryat Motzkin but left before finishing to work at the Phoenicia factory in Haifa. After his army service he completed his matriculation exams. He then studied Hebrew and English literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

As a student he began working at Kol Yisrael radio. In 1962 he launched the Hagal Hakal broadcasts, which later became Reshet Bet. He was part of the team that founded Israeli television and presented the first Mabat broadcast in 1968.

He served as the broadcasting authority's correspondent in the United States and later edited Mabat and headed the news department. On the 1977 election night he coined the word "mahapach" when reporting the Likud victory. From 1986 to 1990 he was director of Israeli Television.

In 2005 his documentary series The Land of the Settlers caused political controversy. He read the news for the last time in 2008. Four women accused him of sexual assault in 2016 and 2017, and he denied the claims. He died in 2026.