Zadok Lavan

Zadok Lavan was born and raised in Jerusalem. His father was born in Syria and his mother was born in Tiberias. His father passed away when he was a child and his mother raised his brother and him by herself. Zadok graduated from the David Yalin teachers seminar and worked as a teacher in south Israel and Bet Shemesh. Later he returned to Jerusalem and worked with youngsters. He was the third manager of the youth service in the youth division and worked with adolescents in street gangs for over 20 years. Zadok dedicated his life to being involved in the life of adolescents in streetgangs in Jerusalem. He kept a personal connection with hundreds of youngsters and took care of their needs. Zadok accompanied many boys from Musrara and therefor he was involved in the founding of the Black Panthers. Zadok died in 1985, when he was only 51. He left his  wife, Ziva. From a eulogy by Shabtay Amedi: "It is very hard to distinguish the private person that was Zadok from the work he did for the youth division. His work was his way of life, it was devotion of the highest order, based on an individual wealth of spirit, knowledge, unconventional thinking, originality, non-conformism, humanistic values, honesty, and maybe most of all - acceptance of people as they are and the belief that anybody can be reached - even the most problematic and non communicating boy. We must work hard to reach that boy, understand him and help him find his place in society. That great devotion and the strong character of Zadok enabled him to make a strong and honest bonding with the toughest of the kids. And they in return, were sensitive enough to see that this man is driven by the love of man and the values he believes in, but would never impose them on anyone. Zadok was not satisfied with just this personal connection he made. He was a man who understood social processes and his approach was based on community work with treatment of the whole family, the whole community, and sometimes the whole of Israeli society. As someone who spoke to Zadok just before the Black Panthers phenomenon erupted, I am astonished still today by his analytical skills and his ability to see the future. The very same scenarios he predicted many months before this protest broke out, manifested just as he thought they would".