Biography
Itzik was born in Petach Tikva, Israel, the only child of Tova Rosset, a Polish immigrant, and Shalom Kolker, a Ukrainian immigrant who worked as a union organizer and fought for Arab-Israeli rights. As a child, Itzik trained to be a classical violinist at the urging of his mother. Despite noticeable talent, his interests shifted to politics and socialism during his adolescence and young adulthood when he became a prominent leader in the Israeli youth movement, Hashomer Hatzair. His idealism and pioneering spirit led him, along with others, to found and establish Kibbutz Nachshon, a collective community based on an agricultural economy. There, Itzik married Noemi Glass and officially changed his last name from Kolker to Kol as a mark of independence. They bore two children: Ayelet Kol Engelman (born 1953) and Shahar Kol (born 1956). Itzik left Kibbutz Nachshon in 1960.
Itzik resided in Israel throughout his life, except for a 4 year period (1991–1994) when he lived in Mount Olympus, Los Angeles, California. In 1982, Itzik divorced Noemi Kol and married his second wife, Hadassa Degani, in 1991. They adopted a daughter two years later, Gabriella Kol (born 1993). In 2002, Itzik divorced Hadassa and married his third wife, a Colombian interior designer, Sarita Shalev in 2004.
In the last three years of his life, Itzik was involved in the production of herbal remedies designed to treat children with Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD). He was instrumental in bringing one particular herbal remedy to the public market and actively promoted its effectiveness via print, radio, and television.
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“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
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