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The Pilot's Pilot (Re-Release)

To mark our 10th anniversary, we're re-releasing our pilot episode about...pilots! Elynor Rudnick and Zahara Levitov grew up on different continents: one in America, one in British-ruled Palestine. In the 1940s, they were both young Jewish women with pilot's licenses. During some of the most turbulent years in modern Jewish history, their stories were woven together—not by fate, but by flight. Plus, Deb Dreyfus, a modern day Jewish woman pilot, takes our host Nahanni Rous for a spin in her four-seater Cessna.

Released January 27, 2026
  • Zahara Levitov

  • Zahara Levitov with fellow pilots at Elynor Rudnick's flying field in Bakersfield, CA

  • Right: Zahara Levitov's death notice, signed by David Ben Gurion. Left: the letter to Zahara's family, from 1949.

  • Newspaper clipping from the Bakersfield Californian describing Elynor Rudnick as an "aviatrix." April 1, 1948.

  • Article about Elynor Rudnick in the Bakersfield Californian from April 10, 1945

  • Pilot Deb Dreyfus with her plane

  • Zahara Levitov flying a plane
  • Zahara Levitov with pilots in Bakersfield, CA
  • Zahara Levitov's Death Notice and letter to her family
  • Elynor Rudnick Newspaper Clipping
  • Elynor Rudnick Article
  • Deb Dreyfus with her plane

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "The Pilot's Pilot (Re-Release)." (Viewed on June 15, 2026) <https://qa.jwa.org/podcasts/canwetalk/pilots-pilot-re-release>.