Shaul Afek

Shaul Afek was born in 1928 in Ein Harod

Shaul Afek was born Shaul Pinchuk on August 23, 1928, in Ein Harod. His father came from Poland and his mother from Belarus. He grew up in Kfar Yona and later studied at the Max Fein school.

He joined the Palmach in 1945 and took part in sabotage operations against the British. During the War of Independence he led the fighting at Geulim against an Iraqi force in May 1948. He then completed the first officers course of the IDF.

After the war he moved to the Golani Brigade, helped found its reconnaissance unit and later commanded Battalion 51. He served in Operation Kadesh and in the Six-Day War as operations officer of Central Command. In 1968 he became a colonel and commander of the Haifa District, and his last post was IDF attaché in Brazil.

He left the IDF in 1975 and studied business administration and political science at Tel Aviv University. He worked for Israel Chemicals, the Technion and the Jewish National Fund, including fundraising in South America and Canada. He married Tzvia Brin in 1955, and their daughter Michal is the wife of President Isaac Herzog. He died on November 10, 2020.