ISRAEL – Farewell to Ada Feinberg-Sereni, from the Palmach to the founding of Kibbutz Yir’on

Over the course of her almost century-long life, Ada Feinberg-Sereni fought in Israel’s War of Independence, saw comrades and friends fall in battle, founded the kibbutz Yir’on with a small group of young people in the middle of nowhere, just a few meters from the Lebanese border, and served one term in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Since 1949, Feinberg-Sereni had lived continuously in Yir’on. Despite wars and threats from the north, she had never been evacuated until October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah attacked Israel’s northern border after joining Hamas in the wake of the massacres carried out by Palestinian terrorists the day before.
In June 2024, Feinberg-Sereni told Walla about her fear of dying away from the home she had built: “I want to go home. Let them shoot me if they must; I’m not afraid. I’ve done my part. What should I be afraid of?”
She spent a year and a half away, staying in a protected residence in Kibbutz Gazit. Then, in June of 2025, she received the green light to return to Yir’on. “I know this kibbutz will live again. We’ve planted orchards and built homes, a carpentry shop, a winery. Children were born here. All of this means there is a home, and a home is not abandoned,” she said upon returning.
Five months later, on November 4, as Israel marked the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Ada Feinberg-Sereni passed away in her home at the age of 95.

From Rome to Tel Aviv

Sereni was born in Rome in 1930 to Enrico Sereni, a scientist and Italian army officer during World War I, and Deborah Aylon-Sereni, who grew up in Jerusalem and moved to Rome to study. Her uncle, Enzo Sereni, a Zionist intellectual and founder of Kibbutz Givat Brenner, was one of the Jewish paratroopers sent by the Allies into occupied Europe. Dropped into central Italy to aid persecuted Jews and assist the Resistance, he was captured by the Germans and executed in Dachau in 1944.
Ada’s father died when she was ten months old. When she was four, her mother took her to Tel Aviv, which was then part of British Mandatory Palestine. At 17, Ada enlisted in the Palmach, the elite force of the Hagana, and was assigned to the training group in Dafna, in the Galilee. In 1948, she participated in the Battle of Nabi Yusha, one of the toughest battles of the War of Independence, in which twelve of her comrades were killed.

“On the day of my 18th birthday, I saw a man die for the first time,” she recalled in an interview. “We lost many friends, and at that time, we didn’t really understand what our fate would be. During that time, it was not clear that we would have a state. On the contrary. The night before Ben-Gurion’s proclamation of the State of Israel, the girls in our group were in Rosh Pina. We were told to sleep dressed with our shoes on and our rifles next to us so that, if a state were born, we would be ready to defend it. There was fear, but also certainty and, above all, determination.”

The founding of Yir’on

After the war, she settled on a desolate hill near the Lebanese border with some comrades. That’s where Yir’on was born. “There was no road or anything, but they told us, ‘This is the border of the State, and you must be here.’ So, we stayed,” she said.
In the early years, the kibbutz was poor and isolated, and many left. She stayed. Gradually, the first harvests came, as well as houses, a school, and a new generation of children and grandchildren.
In later years, she married Israel (Izzy) Feinberg, and they had three children together. She worked as a teacher and educator at the regional “Anna Frank” school. In 1969, she was elected to the Knesset as representative of the Ma’arach, the Labor coalition. Together with MP Chaika Grossman, she introduced a bill to allow civil marriage in Israel. The bill was debated but never passed. After a single term, she returned to Yir’on and dedicated herself to the kibbutz education movement.
During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, one of Israel’s darkest moments, Feinberg-Sereni remained confident. “I knew that, despite the surprise and the blow we had taken, we would recover and win. We have a state, and we will not lose it.”

The war against Hamas and Hezbollah

The first evacuation in her 94 years left a mark on Feinberg-Sereni. “The government has forgotten the Galilee,” she told Walla in 2024. Referring to the war against Hamas and the October 7 massacres, she added, “Good friends from Be’eri and Nahal Oz were murdered, and kibbutzim were destroyed. There is enormous pain and anger inside me. How could they let this happen? All the wars and military operations have been hard for us, but we overcame them. This one, though, is the most terrible of all. There has never been a war like this.”
Returning home to her kibbutz brought her some peace, according to her friends in Yir’on.
“Ada Feinberg-Sereni was an important figure in our community. She educated and guided many people, and her influence is still evident today,” reads a statement from the kibbutz.
“She will be remembered not only for her achievements, but also for the Israeli spirit and vision she embodied. Her memory will live in the hearts of Yir’on’s residents and all who knew her.”

d.r.

Translated by Matilde Bortolussi and revised by Alessia Tivan, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainees in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.