Vidal Sassoon

Biography

Vidal Sassoon (1928–2012) was a British volunteer who served in Israel’s War of Independence. Born in Hammersmith, London, on 17 January 1928, he arrived in Mandatory Palestine in the spring of 1948 and joined the Palmach, the elite strike force of the Haganah, fighting in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War before returning to Britain.

He later became one of the most influential hairdressers of the twentieth century, and through the Vidal Sassoon Foundation remained a lifelong supporter of Israel and of Jewish causes. He died in Los Angeles on 9 May 2012.

Vidal Sassoon was a British Machal volunteer, not an American or Canadian one. He is included in this record for his 1948 Palmach service and his connection to the organization through the Vidal Sassoon Foundation.