Days Gone by

Zvi Lotker (Oded's father), son of Jacob (Yaakov) and Hanna, was born in July 1901 in Nizhyn, Ukraine. Zvi studied in the local gymnasium and then went on to study in the Kyiv and Leningrad Polytechnic Universities. From a very young age, he was an avid Zionist. Zvi's mother, Hanna, was the cousin of, Haim-Nahman Bialik. She was a disobedient girl, and in her grandfather's house, she once cut her cousin Bialik's sideburns just for the fun of it. The future national poet held a grudge against her for years. Later on, when they all immigrated to Palestine, Haim-Nahman and Mania Bialik became close friends with Zvi and Ra'ya Lotker.

In 1922, Zvi Lotker was sent as a town representative to the Youth of Zion convention in Kyiv. On account of his Zionist activism, the Soviet authorities arrested and sentenced him to one year in prison, and he was eventually deported from the Soviet Union. In 1925 he immigrated to Israel and started working as a clerk in the Strauss Medical Center in Tel Aviv. In 1926 he became a member of the Haganah paramilitary organization and was active during the Arab insurgencies of 1929 and 1936-1929. Zvi was a very literate man, and a fanatic promoter of the Hebrew language; among other things, he translated military texts from Russian to Hebrew. In 1936, he underwent a self-defense instructor course and began training volunteers throughout the country. During the Israeli War of Independence (1948) he participated in defending strongholds although he was already past the draft age, and took part in the conquest of Jaffa, Lod, and Ramla. Later on, he was wounded by shrapnel in the bloody battles of Latrun against the Jordanian Arab Legion. On March 21, 1949, Zvi Lotker was killed in action.

Ra'ya, Oded Lotker's mother, daughter of Homma and Moshe Kaplinsky, was born in Poland and immigrated to Israel on her own when she was just 16. During the Holocaust, Homma, Moshe, and six of their children jointly committed suicide using poison obtained by Moshe, who was a pharmacist. Ra'ya and her brother Isaac, who were in Israel at the time, were the only survivors.

Oded Lotker, big brother of Neta, was born in Tel Aviv in 1935 to Ra'ya and Zvi. From a very young age, Oded liked to paint and was considered an accomplished draftsman. His father Zvi died when he was only 12 years old, an event that impacted his life tremendously. As a teenager, he studied in the Mikve Israel Agricultural Boarding School. His friends of that time remember him as a handsome and stalwart lad, full of humor and endless knowledge, who loved reading and painting boats and seascapes.

Oded served in the military for six years and went on to study Agronomy in Jerusalem and Business Administration at Tel Aviv University. In 1964 he married Miki Hearsch. They had three children – Dana, Zvi and Ido. When Oded completed his studies, he began working as a project manager in Tahal (a leading water resource development company). Oded drew throughout his life, and his style is rich and varied. In January 2007, he passed away at the age of 71.

Miki Lotker (Hearsch) was born on December 21, 1938, to Shulamit and Maurice Hearsch, a little sister to Shalom. She was named after Miryam Lifshitz, Shulamit's younger sister, who was killed in a shooting attack at the age of 22. Miki attended the old Herzliya Gymnasium High School in Tel Aviv. In 1964, Miki married Oded Lotker, and the couple had three children: Dana (Ashkenazi), Zvika, and Ido Lotker. Miki was a microbiologist by profession who worked at Hasharon and Beilinson Hospitals.

Miki Lotker loved to cook, she was interested in technology, nature, and animals. After retiring, she engaged in art. She did glasswork, created glass beads, engaged in silversmithing and beadwork, sculpted, painted, and volunteered for community television in Ramat Hasharon. She died on June 5, 2020, at the age of 81 unexpectedly at her home in Ramat Hasharon. Until her death, she was active, curious, and young in her spirit.