Rachel Maccabi

Rachel Maccabi, also spelled Rahel Maccabi (; November 10, 1915 – October 12, 2003), was a Palmach member and Israeli writer born in Egypt.

Youth, education, Zionist beginnings Rachel Maccabi was born in 1915 as Marie-Louise Green in Alexandria, Egypt, into a prosperous Zionist family. Her father, Felix Green, was a wealthy agronomist, a senior member of the Jewish community, and one of the leaders of the local Zionist movement. Her mother, Jeanine, She was active in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. Beginning in 1925, she made several visits to Mandatory Palestine and fell in love with the land. née Mani ). In 1935, they married in Egypt and decided to immigrate to the Land of Israel. She later changed her name to Rachel (inspired by the poet Rachel Bluwstein Sela ) and lived with Maccabee in Moshav Tel Tzur (today part of Even Yehuda). In 1937, their eldest son, Oded, was born. He would die in 1964 of cancer. A daughter, Alona, followed. Their family surname is spelled by Israeli researcher Ilana Rosen as Mutzary-Meni, and her husband's given name as Maccabi.

In 1938, her father, Felix Green, was murdered in Alexandria by a burglar who broke into his house.

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, her husband was appointed to the Harel Brigade (a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces). He was mortally wounded in an ambush in Dayr Ayyub and two days later died of his wounds. After Maccabi's death, Rachel adopted her late husband's first name, Maccabi, as her last name and decided to continue on his path. She enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and served as the secretary of Yigal Alon.

Life in Israel, writing career, death Rachel Maccabi remained in Israel for the rest of her life. In the early 1950s she met Lovka (Aryeh) Sternin from Kibbutz Hatzor, who would become her second husband. He died in 1990. Of their two sons, Yoash and Avishai, Yoash would fall in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Rachel Maccabi stayed in Kibbutz Hatzor and dedicated herself to writing memoirs drawing from her life story, publishing five such books Mitzrayim sheli ("My Egypt", 1968) Hol va'alonim ("Sand and Oak Trees", 1972), Leilot yerushalayim ("Jerusalem Nights", 1978), Behiyukh uvedema: sipurim ("With Smiles and Tears: Stories", 1986) and Avir harim ("Mountain Air", 1992). Her works tell the story of her youth in Alexandria, her life in Mandatory Israel, the events of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, her early years of service in the IDF, and her life in the kibbutz.

Rachel died on October 12, 2003, and was buried in her kibbutz.