Yael Berolsky is a young woman with many talents and a passion for making an impact in everything she does.
Born in Buenos Aires, Berolsky grew up in a very Zionist family. The oldest of three children, she and her siblings were immersed in the close-knit Jewish community.
“I went to a Jewish school until I was 12, and then to a Modern Orthodox high school,” she says. “I was super active in a Jewish youth movement and held a number of leadership roles.”
When she was 15, Berolsky was one of five students chosen from her high school to participate in a Jewish Agency program in Israel for outstanding social activists. It was the first time she visited the country, and those two weeks changed her life.
“I simply fell in love with everything,” she says with enthusiasm. “I knew that I must return.”
True to her word, after graduating high school with honors, she returned to Israel on a one-year program. Halfway through, she knew that she wanted to make Israel her home. In her usual forward-thinking manner, she left the program and enrolled in a Hebrew-language ulpan in Kibbutz Yagur in the North.
“I wanted to get a head start on my language skills before I returned,” she explains.
Berolsky went back to Buenos Aires for six months, and then made aliyah completely on her own in 2013, at the age of 19. Her parents were happy for her but hesitant about this decision, as they worried that she would be drafted into the IDF soon after her arrival.
SHE REMEMBERS the day she arrived at the Ra’anana Absorption Center in June. “It was very hot, and the room I was given with three other roommates from Latin America was old, small, and dreary,” Berolsky recalls. “I cried on the spot.”
It was a friend from third grade, who had made aliyah many years before with her parents, and with whom Berolsky had kept in touch, who helped her through her first few challenging months. “She was with me all the time, and because of her and her family I did not feel so alone.”
Serving in the IDF as a lone soldier
After the initial hurdles, things turned around for Berolsky. Rather than waiting for her IDF call-up, she took the initiative and went to the recruitment office five months after arriving to start her mandatory service. She was given “lone soldier” status, as she had no immediate family in Israel, and requested to serve on a closed base for the same reason.
Berolsky served in the Air Force. She was the first female engine technician for Israel’s new Hercules helicopters, renamed Shimshon in Israel.
“I trained as an engine technician, and then relocated to a new base in the South,” she says. “I arrived at the base on the same day that these new helicopters were delivered. I worked with a team of two others to keep the engines in top working order.”
She speaks highly of the people she served with, especially her commanders. On the day that she moved apartments, they all came to help her.
“I have met the most amazing people in this country,” she says, “people who want to help and who really care. It’s a great feeling.”
After her two-year service, Berolsky studied for her college entrance exams. A mentor she received through an organization that helps discharged lone soldiers told her about the Atidim program, which gives all-encompassing support to help students like her to obtain their engineering degrees.
Berolsky was accepted to Ariel University, majoring in electrical and electronic engineering. With Atidim’s financial, academic, and social support, she excelled in her studies and also volunteered to tutor freshmen in her junior and senior years.
She says that the Atidim coordinator, with whom she is still in touch, was always there for her, pushing her forward, and that the donor who sponsored her was incredible. “It was like winning the lottery,” she says candidly. “I am so grateful for the opportunity they gave me to start my new life in Israel.”
Berolsky’s partner, Egor Buiko from Belarus, whom she met on Kibbutz Yagur, was also an Atidim student. They studied together at Ariel, majored in engineering, and are now living in Petah Tikva.
Excelling at the university, Berolsky was offered a student job at a global defense technology company, and she seamlessly integrated into a full-time position after graduation.
While working, she began her MSc degree in electrical and electronic engineering, on an accelerated track for outstanding students. “It was an intensive three years, working full time and studying,” says Berolsky, who completed her degree in February 2024, “but I loved it.”
She did her specialization in biomedical engineering, and with the assistance of one of her lecturers, who gave her the use of his lab, Berolsky developed an AI algorithm for early detection of prostate cancer, the first non-invasive medical detection system of its kind, she says.
“I never expected to receive the outcomes that I did,” she says enthusiastically. “It was very exciting.” She is now contemplating studying for her PhD in the near future.
Berolsky says that since Oct. 7, she has thrown herself even more vigorously into her work. She was not called up for reserve duty, but she says working hard helps her to deal with these difficult times.
Despite everything, she is anxious for her parents and two younger brothers to make aliyah. Her mother retired as a kindergarten teacher, and her father owns a gym, and they are thinking of making the move.
“There is no better place in the world for Jews to live,” says Berolsky. “I am so glad to be here, and very proud to be an Israeli.” ■
Yael (Iael) Berolsky, 30From Buenos Airesto Petah Tikva, 2013