Dr. Yossi Hadar
| Yossi Hadar was born in Belgium in 1946 to parents who were Holocaust survivors. He and his family sailed for Israel on the ship Theodore Herzl, but were captured by the British and sent to a transit camp in Cyprus. They immigrated to Israel on November 29, 1947. During Israels formative years, Yossi and his family lived in the shacks of the Givat Shmuel transit camp, and later settled in Kiryat Israel. Yossi studied medicine in Hebrew University and joined the army in 1971 where he served as the Golan Heights Regional Physician (which included treating the Druze population). |
During the Yom Kippur War, Yossi, a paramedic and two other soldiers were nearly taken captive by Syrian forces but the group managed to escape at the last moment. Throughout the war Yossi saved lives as he operated on wounded soldiers under combat conditions.
The Yom Kippur War left a deep impression on Yossi and he suffered from symptoms of PTSD as a result. That, compounded with the traumas his family dealt with due to the Holocaust ,influenced Yossi to study psychiatry. He completed an internship at the Shalvata Mental Health Center in Hod Hasharon.
During Operation Peace for Galilee, Yossi served in the reserves and headed the Airborne Medical Unit. Yossi held the Eli Weisel Chair for Holocaust Research at Bar Ilan University and headed the Psychotherapy program there for four years. In addition, he was a playwright, poet and author. Approximately two weeks before the official opening of NATAL in June 1998, Yossi was diagnosed with severe leukemia and passed away.
He did not live to see his vision materialize and grow into an established institution, as he had dreamed. Yossi is survived by his wife and three children.
May his memory be blessed forever.