Jane Yahil Obituary

We are sad to announce the sudden death of Jane Elisabeth Yahil on August 19, 2025, in South Setauket, New York. Jane leaves behind family and many friends in the USA, France, Austria, the UK, and Israel. She will be greatly missed.

Jane "Yael" Yahil née Graber was born on April 12, 1944, in Paddington Hospital (London) to Gwendoline Radley and Felix Graber. Her mother was British, and her father was a refugee from Austria. After the war, Jane and her older brother Michael moved to Vienna for some time. The children sailed on the ship "Kedma" to Israel with their father and stepmother, Miriam, arriving in February 1950.

Jane grew up in Jerusalem, going to school there and serving as a lieutenant in the Israeli Air Force. After completing her military service, she moved to London for a year to reconnect with her mother Gwen and work for the Israeli Embassy. Returning to Israel, she enrolled in the Hebrew University where she would receive multiple degrees, eventually culminating in a PhD in medieval British legal history.

In 1970, Jane moved with Amos Yahil to Princeton, New Jersey, where they married on New Year's Day in 1972. Their first daughter, Edna, was born in Princeton in September 1973, and the family moved back to Israel following the Yom Kippur War. Several years later, the small family moved back to the United States, eventually settling in Setauket, New York. Jane and Amos' second child, Ron was born in 1978. Jane and Amos divorced in 1986, and, despite many difficulties, she proudly raised her children from that point on as single mom.

Upon completing her doctorate in 1981, Jane spent the rest of her career working in administration at Stony Brook University. She started off working in the History Department and was promoted to Senior Assistant to the President in 1986. In 1994, she moved to the other side of campus and served as Assistant VP for Health Sciences at Stony Brook University Hospital until her retirement in 2011. Throughout her more than 30 years working at Stony Brook University, Jane established and maintained many professional and personal relationships with the university community that lasted throughout her career and long after she retired.

Jane also enjoyed volunteering her time, serving on the Boards of Stony Brook Hillel and Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic. She took great pride in being a grandmother to her only grandchild, Chiara Esther who was born in Paris in 2007. Jane's final trip abroad was in February 2025, when she traveled with Chiara to Vienna to show her granddaughter the city where her paternal family came from and to meet her cousin Michi.

Jane was multi-cultural and a polyglot. She could move seamlessly between cultures and communities in the USA, Europe, and Israel. Equally comfortable speaking in English and Hebrew, she also spoke Viennese-accented German at home with her parents and started to work more seriously on her French when her granddaughter was born.

Jane is survived by her children Edna (Francois) and Ron (Megan), granddaughter Chiara, brother Mickey (Daphna), stepsister Polly, cousin Michi, and her nieces and nephews Nurit, Uzi, Yonatan, and Ruti, and their families.

The funeral is set for August 27:

11:00 am, funeral service at Shalom Memorial Chapels, Smithtown, NY

1:00 pm, burial service at Washington Memorial Park, Mt. Sinai, NY

2:30 - 5:30 pm, Shiva at Hillel, Stony Brook Union lower level

In lieu of flowers, Edna and Ron ask that charitable donations in memory of Jane be made to Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic.