A Person Who Has Made A Difference – Roni Zukerman

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TOPIC                   PAGES                PERSON RESPONSIBLE

Introduction                  1 – 9                      Every member

Biography & Timeline      10 – 19                  Yuval and Idan

Our Figure’s Influence On Us     20 – 21        Every member

Interview                        22 – 24                  Yoav and Ariel

Report On Presentation    25 – 28                 Yuval and Ariel

Bibliography                       29                            Idan

Appendix                        30 –                             Yoav

INTRODUCTION BY YUVAL SIRYON

Throughout history, there have been people who have influenced the way we live. Roni Zuckerman is one of these people.

I chose to prepare this research project on Roni Zuckerman for several reasons. To begin with, I always wanted to make a change in our society about the relationship between men and women and when Yoav suggested that we do the project on Roni Zuckerman, I agreed. Roni proved to me that everything is possible, despite all the difficulties. She inspires me and all the other females. Roni is the example that all the women can do the same things that men do.

There are a number of things that I already know about Roni Zuckerman. Firstly, Roni is the first female jet fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force that finished the course.

In addition, I know that she is the granddaughter of Zivia Lubetkin and Icchak Cukierman (also known as Yitzhak Zuckerman).
Her grandparents were among the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II and among the 34 fighters who survived.

I expect to learn new and interesting things about Roni Zuckerman. First and foremost, I expect to find out about her difficulties in being the first female jet fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force. Also, I want to learn the story of her grandparents in Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Finally, I would like to discover the reason why she chose to be a jet fighter pilot and if her childhood influenced her choice.

Roni has left her mark on the world. I am looking forward to finding out more about her.

INTRODUCTION BY IDAN FELDMAN

Throughout history, there have been people who have influenced the way we live. Roni Zuckerman is one of these people.

I choose to prepare this research project on Roni Zuckerman for several reasons. To begin with, one of my friends suggested that I prepare the research about her and I agreed with him. Moreover, I wanted to do the project about a person less known than others, so I asked my classmates and not many of them had heard of her. Furthermore, my teacher insisted that we will prepare the project about a Jewish person.

There is something that I already know about Roni Zuckerman. She was the first Israeli female pilot of the IDF.

I expect to learn new and interesting things about Roni Zuckerman. Firstly, I expect to find out about her military

service in the IDF. Second, I want to learn about her life choices and how she got to be the first female pilot in the IDF

Roni Zuckerman has left her mark on the world. I am looking forward to finding out more about her.

INTRODUCTION BY ARIEL BERGER

Throughout history, there have been people who have influenced the way we live. Roni Zuckerman is one of these people.

I chose to prepare this research on Roni Zuckerman for several reasons. To begin with, Roni Zuckerman isn’t tougher about as part of the education system although she did a lot for the IDF. Secondly, I have to do it in order to expand my knowledge – “A people who do not know their past, their present is poor and the future isn’t clear”.

There are a number of things that I already know about Roni Zuckerman. Firstly, Roni Zuckerman is the first woman who was a combat pilot in the IDF.  This fact inspired lots of women in Israel, to enlist to combat classes in IDF and that made IDF stronger than it was 18 years ago.

Secondly, Roni Zuckerman’s grandparents were the leaders of the “The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising” and because of that reason, they saved thousands of human lives. I expect to learn new and interesting things about Roni Zuckerman.

First and foremost, I expect to find out what inspired Ronnie Zuckerman to be a combat pilot. Also, I want to learn how Roni Zuckerman feels about her grandparents’ history and her thoughts about it. Finally, I would like to discover what she actually thinks about Israel as a citizen, and if it justifies what she fought for. To sum up, Roni Zuckerman has left her mark on the world.
I am looking forward to finding out more information and important facts about her.

INTRODUCTION BY YOAV SHAKUF

Throughout history, there have been people who have influenced the way we live. Roni Zuckerman is one of these people.

I chose to prepare this research project on Roni Zuckerman for several reasons. To begin with, my father is a huge fan of jet fighting and is interested in the IDF, which is the reason why, as a child, I heard the name Roni Zuckerman, more than once or twice. As a result, I always thought of her as a change-maker in many different aspects.

There are a number of things that I already know about Roni Zuckerman. Firstly, I know that she was the first ever female jet fighter pilot for the Israeli air force, in the Israeli defense army. In addition, I know that her grandfather- Isaac Zuckerman, and her grandmother – Cywia

Lubetkin/Zuckerman, were active members in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

I expect to learn new and interesting things about Roni Zuckerman. First and foremost, I expect to find out about the life-path she went through and about the choices she made in life. Also, I want to learn about her grandfather and grandmother, and understand better their role in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Finally, I would like to discover about the obstacles she had in the Israeli defense army and her whole service period.

Roni zuckerman has left her mark on the world. I am looking forward to finding out more about her.

BIOGRAPHY

Yitzhak Zuckerman and Zivia Lubetkin

Yitzhak Zuckerman was born on Dec 13, 1915 in Vilnius, Poland into a Jewish family. In 1939, he took an active part in the creation of the various Jewish underground socialist organizations.

Zvia Lubatkin was born in Nov 7, 1914 in Byten, Poland. She grew up in a Jewish house with 6 brothers and sisters. In 1339 she took part in the 20th Zionist Congress as a delegate of the Erez Israel Labor bloc. Also, her name was used in letters sent by the resistance groups outside and inside the ghetto as a code word.

During World War II

At the beginning of World War II, Yitzhak Zuckerman was in Lviv, where he organized an underground movement.

In April 1940, he returned to Warsaw, there he became a leader of the “Dror Hechalutz” youth movement, with his future wife Zivia Lubetkin. He also edited with Eliyahu Gutkowski the anthology “Fine On Hero”, which was printed underground in the Warsaw ghetto and distributed among the various ghettos and served many young people as a conceptual training for the uprising. In 1941, he became the deputy commander of the ŻOB resistance organisation. In 1942, Zivia helped found the left-wing Zionist Anti-Fascist Bloc. This was the first resistance organization in the Warsaw Ghetto to confront the German forces in the war. She was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and one of the only 34 fighters to survive the war. On December 22, 1942, Yitzhak and two accomplices attacked a café in Kraków that was being used by the SS and Gestapo.  

Zuckerman was wounded and narrowly escaped, and his two comrades were tracked down and killed. When news began coming from Vilna about mass murder of Jews, Zuckerman decided that an organization must fight the Germans. And on the second day of the deportation from the Warsaw ghetto, July 23, 1942, Zuckerman initiated a gathering of representatives of the underground organized public forces and demanded that they call the public and actively oppose the deportation from the ghetto. On July 28, 1942, he participated in a limited meeting of pioneering movement leaders, in which the decision was made to establish the Jewish Fighting Organization, and Zuckerman was a member of the organization’s headquarters. After the fall of Mordechai Anilewicz in May 1943, Zuckerman was appointed Commander of the Brig Along with Simcha “Kazik” Rotem,

he organized the escape of the surviving ZOB fighters through the sewers to safety. During the later Warsaw Uprising of 1944, he led a small troop of 322 survivors of the Ghetto Uprising as they fought the Germans. During the uprising he stayed outside the ghetto to provide weapons to the fighters. He organized the rescue of the fighters’ remains in the ghetto, including his wife, Zivia Lubetkin, who was also a member of the IDF. Zivia took part in the Polish Warsaw Uprising, fought in the units of the Armia Ludowa. On March 1, 1945, Zivia attempted to immigrate to Palestine. This move was unsuccessful because the only available route was blocked, which made her return to Warsaw. In January 1945 Zuckerman and Zivia were liberated by the Soviet army and concentrated on the treatment of the “She’erit Ha-Pleita” of

Polish Jewry and their departure from Poland as part of the “Irgun Ha – Bricha.”

After the war

After the war Yitzhak worked as part of the “Bricha” network, whose operatives smuggled Jewish refugees out of Eastern

and Central Europe to Mandate Palestine. In 1947 he himself made that journey, settling in what would soon be Israel. There he and his wife Zivia, along with other veterans of the ghetto undergrounds and former partisans, were among the founding members of Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot and the Ghetto Fighters’ House (GFH) museum located on its grounds, commemorating those who struggled against the Nazis. GFH has a study center named for Zivia and Yitzhak Zuckerman.

However, Lubetkin was active in the Holocaust survivor’s community in Europe, and helped organize the Bricha,

an organization staffed by operatives who helped European Jews cross borders en route to Mandate Palestine by illegal immigration channels. She herself immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1946. She married Yitzhak Zuckerman, the Jewish combat organization commander, and they, along with other surviving ghetto fighters and partisans founded Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot and the Ghetto Fighters’ House museum located on its grounds. In 1961, she testified at the trial of captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Her two children were born in Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetta’ot, Shimon (b. 1947) and Yael (b. 1949).

Roni Zuckerman

Roni Zuckerman was born in 1981 (The same year that her grandfather passed away). Roni is is the granddaughter of Zivia Lubetkin and Icchak Cukierman (also known as Yitzhak Zuckerman). When she was teenager, Roni Zuckerman used to live with her parents in kibbutz “Lohamei Hageta’ot”. A little bit before she enlisted to the IDF her family’s house was 90 square meters. A few years later her house was rebuilt and became twice the size. She had been learning in “Sulam Choore” high school and she had shown that she had high level skills in any subject she found as interesting. A good example for that is the fact that she did all the Bagrut exams at a five-point level and got high grades. An important fact about her social life is that she was the only female in the class,

and even so she dovetailed easily with anyone in the class. At the breaks she played baseball with the boys in her class, and they never complained about her baseball skills. Her friends described her as a special girl, that  did the best she could in anything she wanted to. They also described her as unstoppable girl that could do whatever she wanted. Because of the fact she was so good in her class, she led a lot of girls who had learned with her, to go to units combat. Although women had served as pilots during the Israeli War of Independence and a few years thereafter, the Israeli Defence Forces had, until 1995, denied women the opportunity to become pilots. After the prohibition was lifted, the first female graduate was F-16 navigator “Shari” in 1998, followed three years later by Zuckerman, the first female jet- fighter pilot in IAF history.

Through her service, she has contributed greatly and participated in operations such as ‘zok eitan’ as well as in the Second Lebanon War. Upon completing the flight course, the Air Force commander intended to honor her in his presence and fly with her, but because of her much modesty and reluctance to attract unnecessary and unwanted attention, she turned him down. Today Roni Zuckerman is 38 years old. She lives in “Hasharon”, and she has 3 children. In 2018 Roni Zuckerman got a honor roll for her deeds in 2001.

OUR FIGURE’S INFLUENCE ON US

Zivia Lubetkin’s most powerful and meaningful quotations is “I’m not one of the optimists”. It had an influence on us in several ways. To begin with, we connected to this quotation because it points out many aspects of her personality. It indicates that this is a realistic woman who thinks clearly and in a clear and euphoric way. Moreover, it does not necessarily indicate a pessimistic person but a strong woman who had been through things in her life and knew that life is not always a fairy tale and that the end of the story won’t always be “and they lived happily ever after”. She knew it would end badly and that the power to change the end was in her hands.

In addition, we admire her self-confidence to declare such a statement like this about herself. Everyone should learn from her to be self-aware and full of self-confidence.

INTERVIEW

We chose to interview a Helicopter pilot, who ended a course 3 years ago. Her full name is confidential, so we will refer to her as T. We decided to interview her for several reasons. First of all, T is a woman like Roni who successfully passed a flight course in the military. In addition, we wanted to talk to someone who sees Roni as an admirable figure.

Here is the interview:

1. How did you end up in the course?

I was called to the air force test because of my high data, I didn’t even think about this path before.

2. How different are you from other women?

I am not different at all. I am the type of girl that once I decide to succeed in a mission, I will succeed. That’s it.

3. What do you think of the IDF?

We have the most powerful and greatest army in the world and I’m glad to serve in it.

4. During your service as a military pilot, did you feel any kind of discrimination? What difficulty did you meet?

Not at all. It was like home, I felt no discrimination or difficulty.

5. Can you tell us something about Rony?

Rony- as she is small so she is strong. Just admire her. She has no brakes or fear.

6. Would you recommend other girls to be in the course?

Very much! There is no better feeling in the world than flying an airplane.

7. Did you have time for yourself and your hobbies during the course?

Not so much, the course is really long (the longest in the whole IDF) and there is always something to learn. No time to stop for a minute.

8. How does the course affect your life after the military service?

I will end my service period in a few years. All of the people who finished the course are being “grabbed” and end up with a great post-army job for life.

PRESENTATION

On 12/22/2019, we made a presentation in front of our classmates and teacher on Roni Zuckerman.

There were a number of things we wanted to achieve by making our presentation in this way.
First of all, we wanted to empower the girls in our class by showing them an example of a woman that was able to break all the social conventions and become the first female jet fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force. Moreover, we wanted to make a presentation which would be interesting and would catch everybody’s attention.

In order to prepare this presentation, we followed a number of steps. To begin with, we collected all the information we wanted to say to our classmates. We thought which information would be the most interesting for them. In addition, we made a

presentation which included pictures and text. Furthermore, we divided all the information between us. Also, we prepared a Bingo game for the end of the presentation so our classmates would not be bored during this time. Finally, we practiced before the presentation so our presentation would be the best.

The presentation in the class was done in the following way. We stood in front of the class while slides, changed in the background after anyone had finished his own part. We all took turns speaking, during the presentation. After we had finished our presentation, we moved to the part of the activity.
In short, the activity was a “Bingo“ game and the twist was that anyone who took part, could choose the “numbers” of his own ticket, out of the list, that was written on the board. Immediately after the presentation, we received feedback from our teachers and peers.

To begin with, our classmates and teacher liked the connection we made between Roni and har grandparents.
In addition, a lot of positive feedback was about how much fun the activity was. They said,

“your activity was fun and creative”, “I enjoyed the activity very much”.
Another example of feedback was about the feminist part of the presentation: “it’s nice that you chose to do your presentation about an unknown woman who did a lot for women”.

We learnt several things about Roni Zuckerman and her family while doing this section. First of all, we learned that Yitzhak Zuckerman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Secondly, we learned that, Zivia Lubetkin was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground.

Last but not least we learned that Roni Zuckerman was the first combat pilot in IDF.

Looking back on our presentation there are several things that we could have been done differently. To begin with, we should have memorized all the information that we conveyed in the presentation. Moreover, we should have researched more information about our subject, because of the fact that our presentation, was a little too short. Last but not least, before we had started our presentation, we should have checked if all was working as well, things that we didn’t do and luckily, didn’t harm our presentation.

In conclusion, we enjoyed learning more things about Roni Zuckerman and her family. This project was challenging for us and we are happy with the result.

Bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zivia_Lubetkin

https://lib.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?item=16319

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Zuckerman

https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART/994/991.html

https://www.paradive.co.il/index.php?dir=site&page=articles&op=item&cs=10608&category=1001011

https://www.mako.co.il/tv-weekend/Article-e4ad30085fb8261006.htm

https://www.idc.ac.il/he/whatsup/pages/idc_awards_honorary_fellowship.aspx