Soldier, journalist, community activist.
Born at Jerusalem, Israel on 20 February 1942 to Judith Raffaeli and Joseph Mizrachi, he joined the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) when he was 17, became a paratrooper, and spent many years in the Israeli Defense Force. During the Six-Day War in 1967, he fought in the battle for Jerusalem. After the War of Atonement in 1973, he moved with his family to northern Israel where he rejoined the IDF and became the first Israeli commander of the now-defunct South Lebanon Security Belt (from Mount Hermon in the east to the Mediterranean in the west).
Meanwhile, he followed his interest and talent in art, studying at the Bezalel Fine Arts School in Jerusalem and then continuing his studies in Wiesbaden, Germany. He worked for many years as a newspaper, radio, and television journalist for Israeli and foreign media in Israel as well as in South Africa, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Germany.
In 1982, he immigrated to Canada, settling in Winnipeg with his then wife, Beate Zahn, and their three children. He continued to write for Israeli newspapers and threw himself into community activism, becoming the co-ordinator of the International Centre’s multicultural committee as well as the co-director of the Winnipeg-based Counter-Terrorism Centre. He published several novels including The Cedar and the Star and the thriller The Golden Lion and The Sun. After divorcing his wife, he married Carol Merhav.
For five years he held the position of Community Development Officer at the Little Grand Rapids First Nation. Upon returning to Winnipeg, he became a lecturer in the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Winnipeg. Over the years, he was involved in a variety of ventures, including writing a column for the Jewish Post, and running a restaurant on Corydon Avenue, where he would tell fortunes using a deck of cards he had created that combined elements of tarot and Kabbalah. Later in life, he returned to the fine arts, creating works based on the Old Testament and his own vivid imagination.
He died at Winnipeg on 13 October 2010.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 15 October 2010.
“Jerusalem-born journalist, author a multi-talented Renaissance man,” Winnipeg Free Press, 15 October 2010.
“What would the late Yoram Hamizrachi have made of the lack of discussion of Israeli government policies within our Jewish community?,” Jewish Post & News.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 30 September 2025
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