Meir (Meirson) Dr. Jonathan (John)
Son of his son and Frida z “l Born on Wednesday, 6 March 1927 in Johannesburg, South Africa, he immigrated to Israel with his family in 1960. John received his education in South Africa. He attended the King Edward Elementary School and after completing his secondary education, studied medicine at the University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg. He spent his internship in Rhodesia and then studied pediatrics in London for about a year. As a result of his father’s illness, he returned to South Africa before the end of his internship and started a hospital, and even practiced private practice. In 1955 he married Hilary Brody and a year later their first son, Mark (Oron), was born. His second son – Rodney (Roni) was born about a year later. In 1960 the family immigrated to Israel, and after a three-month course in an ulpan in Petah Tikva, she settled in Savyon. John started working at Assaf Harofeh Hospital and Beilinson Hospital. In 1962 he moved to the Institute of Forensic Medicine and specialized in pathology and forensic medicine. In 1965, his daughter Yael was born. Four years later, following the entreaties of a senior medical officer in the Israel Defense Forces, John joined the permanent army and was appointed chief medical examiner in the Israel Defense Forces. In 1973 he took over the management of the Institute and during his tenure in this capacity he studied abroad in the United Kingdom and the United States on the subject of trauma and identification of casualties in mass casualties. John took part in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War and, together with members of the military rabbinate, dealt with identifying the fallen. He spent a lot of time teaching, teaching at the medical faculty of Tel Aviv University, teaching doctors and criminologists in various seminars, maintaining professional standards by reading professional literature in his fields of expertise; And most of his research was published in medical journals in Israel and abroad. John was an avid sports fan and as a teenager was a member of rugby, swimming, and tennis teams at the school he attended. He loved art, painted and built wooden models and used to listen to jazz music. He joined the youth movement in Savyon, participated in many trips and helped organize parties and cultural evenings. In November 1975, John, by a chief medical officer, was called upon to take part in rescue operations and identification of the fallen Hercules aircraft that crashed in Jabal al-Hilal. He fell from the top of a high cliff in the course of his duties, and after seven months of hard struggle for his life – on the 27th of Tammuz 5736 (July 23, 1976) – died. He was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery in Savyon. He left behind a wife, two sons and a daughter. In a letter of condolence to the bereaved family, the Chief Medical Officer wrote: “Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Meir fell in the line of duty and was willing to go beyond his duties. Particularly remarkable is the assessment of the military rabbinate, which saw it as an active partner in fulfilling their duty to the families of IDF soldiers, and it is very tragic that it was precisely in this role that Dr. Meir was injured and fell. Dr. Meir was himself an institution that served all the bodies connected with military-legal medicine, especially the Israel Police and the Ministry of Health. . I hope we can fill this void and develop the institution. I am certain that this was also his wish. “Articles in memory of Lt. Col. Meir and a description of his heroism were published in Yedioth Ahronoth and in other newspapers.
