Yona Melnik

Yona Melnik was born in 1949 in Kassel

Melnik was born on 27 May 1949 in Kassel, Germany, while his Jewish family was moving from Poland to Israel after World War II. He grew up in Ramat Hen and was educated at the Neve Hadassah youth village and the Zionist Youth Farm. He began judo at the club of coach Yehuda Vaz-Diaz in Ramat Hen.

From 1967 to 1970 he served in the IDF as a combat fitness and hand-to-hand combat instructor. From 1971 to 1973 he trained in Philadelphia under Takahiko Ishikawa, and in 1976 he trained in Japan under Isao Okano.

Melnik won the Israeli championship many times and won gold at the Maccabiah Games. He took part in European and world championships and won the Scandinavian Open in 1975 and 1977. He competed at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and was named to the team for the Moscow Olympics, which Israel did not attend because of the boycott.

He founded the Budokan judo school, now based in Moshav Yarkona, and held the title of national coach from 1987. He coached the Israeli national team for 3 terms, the last from 2000 to 2004, and coached the judo team at the Los Angeles Olympics. In 1994 he founded the judo program at the Wingate Institute boarding school for gifted athletes and led it until 2005.

He was the first Israeli to hold a 9th dan from the International Judo Federation. He also founded and runs the Masa program for young people from the Diaspora, and co-authored a 2006 research article on a judo ability test.