Ika Yahav (1958–2021)
Ika Yahav was born on February 10, 1958 to Sarah and Dado Steiner, and grew up in Petach Tikva. From 1976 until 1978 she served as an instructor in the IDF’s School of Communications and Electronics. Upon completing her national service, Ika worked at the information desk at Ben-Gurion Airport, and simultaneously began working towards a BA degree in Middle East Studies and Hebrew Grammar at the University of Tel Aviv.
In 1982, she married Yossi Yahav and they moved to live in London, where Ika worked in the Public Relations department of the Israeli Embassy. Following their return to Israel, Ika had three sons: Amit, Noam and Omer.
In 1997, Ika and her family moved to live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Ika volunteered to be the representative of the Israeli community at the International School of Amsterdam. Later on, she also volunteered as the Communities’ Representatives Co-ordinator at the school, and was in charge of planning and carrying out activities that brought together teachers, students and parents from a multitude of cultural backgrounds.
When she returned to Israel in 2006, she started working as a language arts teacher, and later on also as a homeroom teacher in the Middle School and the High School at “HaKfar HaYarok”. She came to work daily with lots of creativity, originality, positivity, and endless devotion and love for her students and fellow teachers. Throughout this time, she also volunteered in various different outreach programmes aimed at helping those in real need, and frequently involved her students in these programmes. She did all of this with a tremendous heart, an infinite sense of giving, and all the while shining light and love on all those around her.
"I love to think and to be open to others’ ideas. I don’t believe those who know the ‘Book of Life’ by heart and have all the answers."
Dear Ika, You are the wisest person I’ve met, and no, I don’t mean the type of wisdom that gives you a diploma that you can hang on the wall, but the wisdom of a huge soul, wisdom that comes from a love of people, wisdom that is based on the ability to see the good, the wisdom of knowing people’s minds, the wisdom to know what to say and how to say it, and also that sometimes it’s best to count to ten before you say anything. I don’t think that there is another person in the world, about whom there is such a consensus, everyone who knew you even for a short while was in your thrall, you lit up everywhere that your presence touched.
As a homeroom teacher, you emphasised to us that above studies and marks, it is important to you that first and foremost we are good people. You pushed us to be engaged citizens, to whom it is important to know what happens in our country, and to fight to make this place a better place. Many grammar lessons became lessons where we could express our opinion, and discuss the most pressing current affairs. You always aspired to make our class stick together, and taught us what it makes to care for others, and it was important to you that we support and help each other. You started and led community outreach activities that involved the whole class, and you exemplified these principles.
Ika was a consolation for me, because she managed to remind both me and my mother that there is a lot more beyond marks. Ika apparently saw the world in a different light, in Ika’s light. A light that encouraged towards success, but was also not afraid of failure.
Ika always spoke to us at eye-level. For us, 12 to 15 year-old boys and girls, this can't be taken for granted. I remember well the moment a student raised the issue of which subjects she would choose to take in high school: a decision that seemed very significant. And we were all very stressed, and the question came up: "What would you like to be when you grow up?" This, of course, under the understanding that the choice of school subjects would directly affect it. Ika answered simply: "I still haven't decided what I’ll be when I grow up."
