Hero of Israel

The Hero of Israel decoration was Israel's highest military honor in the state's early years, awarded for exceptional distinction in battle, courage, and the willingness to risk one's life to save comrades or accomplish a mission.[7] On July 17, 1949 — during the IDF's Army Day events, which also included military parades, unit lineups, and receptions — twelve soldiers from the War of Independence received the decoration.[3] President Chaim Weizmann presented the award to the recipients on a parade stage; eight of the twelve were alive at the ceremony, meaning four received it posthumously.[8][3]

The date of the ceremony, 20 Tamuz, had been chosen to mark the IDF's establishment and coincided with the anniversary of Theodor Herzl's death.[3] Army Day itself was short-lived: in 1950, David Ben-Gurion decided to cancel it and integrate its observances into Independence Day.[3]

The actions recognized at the 1949 ceremony were diverse in character. They included covering other forces under fire, blowing up an Egyptian ship, and seizing control of a truck in an Arab convoy heading to attack Haifa.[7] Among the recipients was Abraham Avigdorov — known by the nickname Bomchik — who, during a March 1948 Palmach operation against an Arab arms convoy traveling from Beirut toward Haifa, jumped into the road in front of the convoy and, at close range, fired from the hip with his submachine gun, destroying two enemy Bren machine guns.[9] His citation stated that the action determined the battle in Israel's favor, though he was wounded in the explosion.[9] Another recipient, Siman-Tov Ganeh, aged 22, continued firing his machine gun to cover an evacuation after both his legs were severely injured during an attack on Iraq Suwaydan fort in October 1948; he then remained with the wounded for six hours, giving first aid and water.[10]

Yair Racheli, profiled in 2023 as the only surviving recipient among the twelve at that time, earned the decoration by volunteering to advance toward an enemy position after members of his unit were wounded by gunfire during a reprisal operation in Shfar'am; he crawled forward and threw a grenade.[8]

The Hero of Israel decoration was the original name of the IDF's highest decoration, later known as the Medal of Valor (עיטור הגבורה).[1] In 1970, the Decorations in the IDF Law established three IDF decorations — the Medal of Valor, the Medal of Courage, and the Medal of Excellence — and set the specific legal standard for the highest: an act of supreme heroism during combat against the enemy while risking one's life.[7][4]

The law also addressed the original twelve recipients directly, establishing that the Hero of Israel decoration carries the legal status of the Medal of Valor.[4] Recipients of the earlier award were automatically granted the Medal of Valor under this provision.[11] The Medal of Valor's insignia is a yellow ribbon bearing a Star of David with a sword and olive branch.[4]

The decoration is awarded by the defense minister on the recommendation of the chief of staff.[7] By the time of reporting in 2018, forty soldiers in total had received the Medal of Valor — representing less than two percent of all IDF decorations and commendations.[1] Twelve of those forty awards were for actions in the War of Independence.[11] One of the most celebrated later recipients was Ami Ayalon, who received the Medal of Valor for his role in the raid on Green Island — an artificial Egyptian fortress protecting the southern entrance to the Suez Canal, manned by approximately 100 Egyptian fighters. Twenty Shayetet 13 commandos reached the target by diving; Ayalon was wounded multiple times during the assault and charged the Egyptian commandos waiting on the roof. Three Shayetet fighters and three Sayeret Matkal fighters were killed in the battle.[12]

Outside its formal military context, the phrase "Hero of Israel" has been applied as a tribute to individuals whose actions — whether in diplomacy, community defense, or personal sacrifice — have been seen as serving the Jewish people and the State of Israel.[2][5]

In a June 2024 article titled "Meet the Heroes of Israel," the American Jewish Committee (AJC) presented three accounts of Israeli citizens it described as extraordinary heroes in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack.[2] Among them was Nasreen Yousef, a Druze mother of four who speaks Arabic, credited with helping prevent a massacre in Moshav Yated. She persuaded Hamas attackers that she would provide them money and help them escape, while simultaneously gathering intelligence and passing it to the Israel Defense Forces.[2] A second figure, Ofir Libshtein — a 50-year-old Israeli politician and peace advocate — was killed by Hamas attackers at Kibbutz Kfar Aza while defending his community; three family members, including his 19-year-old son Nitzan, were also killed.[2] The AJC subsequently established the Ofir Libshtein Bridge Building Award in his memory.[2]

In a memorial address delivered on November 12, 1995, eight days after Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recalled hearing Rabin's granddaughter say "shalom, gibor Yisrael" — "Goodbye, hero of Israel" — during the memorial events in Jerusalem. Sacks presented the words as a personal farewell rather than an official title or award.[6]

The National Library of Israel applied the phrase in a different historical context altogether, titling its profile of Morris Abraham Cohen — the colorful Anglo-Polish Jewish adventurer who served as a bodyguard to Sun Yat-sen — "Two-Gun Cohen: Artful Dodger Turned Chinese Legend and Hero of Israel." The article connects the honorific to Cohen's advocacy work on behalf of Zionist representatives at the 1945 San Francisco conference that established the United Nations, and to other pro-Jewish activities he undertook in the late 1940s.[5]

Morris Abraham Cohen — known in Chinese as "Ma Kun" and popularly called "Two-Gun Cohen" — was born on August 3, 1887, in Poland, into an Orthodox Jewish family.[5] He arrived in London as a young child and grew up in the East End. As a teenager he was arrested for pickpocketing and sent to an industrial school; British authorities dispatched him to western Canada in 1905, where he worked on a Saskatchewan farm and learned to handle a pistol.[5]

Cohen served in the First World War with the 8th Battalion of the Canadian Railway Troops, building railway tracks to move troops and supplies in Belgium and supervising members of the Chinese Labour Corps; he experienced the Battle of Passchendaele.[5] After the war, in 1922, he went to Shanghai and leveraged Guomindang connections to obtain an interview with Sun Yat-sen, becoming a bodyguard to Sun and Sun's wife, Soong Qingling. A bullet grazed Cohen's arm during one attack on Sun, and by 1935 he had been promoted to major general.[5]

During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong in December 1941, Cohen escorted Soong Qingling and her sister Ailing to one of the last planes leaving the colony, then accompanied them to the mainland. He was subsequently captured when Japan took Hong Kong, imprisoned at Stanley Prison Camp, and severely beaten. In late 1943 he was released in a prisoner exchange facilitated by his Canadian citizenship.[5]

The connection to Zionism took shape at the April 1945 San Francisco conference, where Jewish representatives sought protective language in the UN Charter for peoples in trust territories, including Palestine, then under British mandate. Rabbi Israel Goldstein, aware of Cohen's Chinese connections, asked him to travel to San Francisco and arrange introductions. Cohen connected Jewish Agency leader Eliahu Elath and other Jewish representatives with members of the Chinese delegation, including Wellington Koo, H. H. Kung, and T. V. Soong.[5] Canadian Jewish Congress leader Saul Hayes later recalled Cohen's access: "It turned out that General Two-Gun Cohen wasn't kidding when he said he had influence with the Chinese. Not only did he know the Chinese members, but 'he would get us the damnedest documents. I never asked how or why.'"[5]

Clause 80 of the Charter — later nicknamed the "Palestine Clause" — protected the rights "of any states or any people" within the trusteeships. The National Library of Israel presents Cohen as a facilitator in the lobbying effort, not its sole cause, and Hayes himself cautioned against overstating the episode's significance: "I am not suggesting that if we didn't succeed there'd be no state of Israel… I am suggesting it would have taken a great many years of hard slogging if it had ever gone into the trusteeship division."[5]

Cohen's other Zionist-related activities included assisting a Shanghai Zionist group in formulating plans to bomb British sites if Britain refused to withdraw from Palestine, and in the late 1940s helping Jewish residents of Shanghai who had been kidnapped by Chinese troops secure their freedom.[5] He also attempted — unsuccessfully — to help acquire aircraft for Jewish forces in Palestine. When decorated Canadian Jewish veteran Sydney Shulemson learned that China had purchased 200 De Havilland Mosquito bombers from Canada, Cohen contacted the Chinese ambassador in Ottawa and arranged a lunch meeting to discuss the possibility. The deal collapsed; Shulemson later recalled that the planes had never been uncrated and that those involved seemed more interested in converting Chinese currency into Canadian currency than in any arms transfer.[5]

Recipients themselves and outside observers have raised questions about whether individual medals can fairly represent acts of bravery that were inherently collective.[1] Yair Racheli, one of the original twelve recipients, said that the account of his own act had been exaggerated and that others deserved the medal more.[1] Shaul Vardi expressed discomfort with receiving the medal on behalf of comrades who were killed, arguing that singling out one person diminishes the actions of others.[1]

Gad Rafen, reflecting on the Yom Kippur War, argued that his brigade received too few decorations because many commanders were killed, leaving too few surviving witnesses to recount acts of bravery — a structural problem that Yuval Neria also identified, noting that many heroic acts simply went unwitnessed for the same reason.[1] Rafen further criticized the award process as susceptible to extraneous considerations.[1] These are reported opinions of recipients and should be understood as personal reflections rather than established institutional findings.