15 Facts About Yigael Yadin

Yigael Yadin was an Israeli archeologist, soldier and politician.

Yigael Yadin was the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1981.

Yigael Yadin joined the Haganah at age 15, and served in a variety of different capacities.

Yigael Yadin served as Israel's Head of Operations during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and was responsible for many of the key decisions made during the course of that war.

Yigael Yadin was appointed Chief of Staff of the IDF on 9 November 1949, following the resignation of Yaakov Dori, and served in that capacity for three years.

Yigael Yadin resigned on 7 December 1952, over disagreements with then prime minister and defense minister David Ben-Gurion about cuts to the military budget, which he argued should be at least one third of the national budget.

Yigael Yadin's father had bought three of the seven scrolls discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin goat-herd, and he had bought the other four in New York in 1954.

Yigael Yadin wrote about the expedition and its findings in his 1971 book Bar-Kokhba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome.

Yigael Yadin considered the Solomonic Gate at Tel Gezer to be the highpoint of his career.

Yigael Yadin was sometimes forced to deal with the theft of important artifacts, occasionally by prominent political and military figures.

In 1976 Yigael Yadin formed the Democratic Movement for Change, commonly known by its Hebrew acronym Dash, together with Professor Amnon Rubinstein, Shmuel Tamir, Meir Amit, Meir Zorea, and many other prominent public figures.

Nevertheless, Dash itself proved to be a failure, and the party broke up into numerous splinter factions; Yigael Yadin joined the Democratic Movement, but it too split up and he sat as an independent MK for the remainder of his term.

Yigael Yadin was married to Carmela, who worked with him throughout his career in translating and editing his books and with whom he had two daughters, Orly and Littal.

Yigael Yadin died in 1984 from heart attack and was buried in the military cemetery in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Yigael Yadin published many research papers and ancient text explanations, at the Hebrew University press :.