Mina Ben-Zvi ( Hebrew: מינה בן-צבי; 1909-2000) was the first commanding officer of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Women's Corps. [1]
Mina Ben-Zvi was born as Mina Rogozik in 1909 in Ukraine (Velyki Mezhyrichi, Rivne Oblast). In 1921 she moved with her family to Mandatory Palestine. [2] After completing her education, in 1933, at the age of 24, she joined the Haifa branch of the Haganah. [3]
During the World War II, she was among the first 66 women in Mandate Palestine to join the women's corps of the British Army. [2] She subsequently became as a commander of a British unit in Egypt with a rank of captain. [4] When the 1948 war started she was appointed as the first commander in chief of the women's corps of Israeli Defense Forces. [1] In 1953, she joined her husband Eliyahu Ben-Zvi on a diplomatic mission to Finland from 1953 to 1955. [2] Later she was appointed as Israel's representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (1956–1958). [5]
In 1960 Golda Meir established Mount Carmel International Training Center in collaboration with Ben-Zvi, and Inga Thorsson, a Swedish diplomat, who later became Sweden's Ambassador to Israel. [6] Ben-Zvi became the founding director of Mount Carmel International Training Center, and served as its director for a period of 25 years.
According to Heller, she worked "for advancing women's rights worldwide." [2] She died in 2000.