Helen Broza Helped Israeli Women Fly
By Chana Pollack March 6, 2014
Forward Association
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives.
Fresh off the boat in this photo — specifically the liner LaGuardia arriving in New York in November 1949 — is 27-year-old Helen Broza. She was the first Israeli Defense Force Women’s Corp officer responsible for women serving in the newly formed Israeli Air Force. London-born, and a resident of Tel Aviv for 14 years, Broza was then assigned diplomatic service duties as secretary to the military attaché of the Israeli embassy in Washington. Though women served in the IAF, it took until 1996 and a court battle for women to be permitted to train as pilots and until 2001 for the first female fighter jet pilot to graduate from the IAF.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
