Yulie Cohen

Yulie Cohen (in Hebrew: יולי כהן; born July 5, 1956) is an Israeli documentary filmmaker. Cohen was born in Tzahala, to Miki and Tami Cohen, the second of their three children. She is 6th-generation in Israel on her father's side, whose family came from Morocco and settled in Jaffa, and were among the founders of Neve Tzedek and the 66 originating families of Tel Aviv. Miki Cohen is a mechanical engineer, who made his career in the Ministry of Agriculture, became the CEO of Israel Shipyards, and founded the Palmach Museum. Her mother, Tami Cohen, is a member of Machsom Watch.She began her university studies in Hebrew literature and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and then transferred to Tel Aviv University, where she completed her BA in sociology and anthropology, in 1982.Cohen moved to the United States to continue her education, receiving her MA in communications with distinction from the New York Institute of Technology in 1985. During this time, she worked for the Israel Ministry of Defense delegation in New York.In 1978, Cohen was working as a flight attendant for El Al, when she was injured in a terrorist attack in London, carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Cohen was wounded by shrapnel in her arm; one of her colleagues, Irit Gidron, was killed. Cohen testified at the trial of Fahad Mihyi, who received four consecutive life sentences. Cohen suffered from extreme post-trauma and survivor guilt. 20 years later, she made a film about her journey of reconciliation with the man who shot her; My Terrorist became her most noted work, and won multiple awards.

She then began working in the independent film industry, first in New York and then in Los Angeles. Her first job was as a production assistance and a driver, and then she moved on to script supervising, working on an independent feature, The Light in The Afternoon (1985), directed by Paul Williams and starring Karen Black. In New York, she worked with Israeli producer Yoram Mendel, first as a producer assistant and script supervisor and then as a post-production manager on the film The Big Blue, directed by Andrew Horn. She also worked with Hungarian director Péter Gothár on his film Just Like Amerika, and on a documentary film about Paul Newman.Cohen married Moshe "Chico" Gerstel in 1986, in New York City. In 1988, when Cohen was pregnant with her first daughter, the couple decided to return to Israel and start their family there. Cohen taught a filmmaking course at WIZO Haifa Academy of Design and Education (1988–1991), and worked as an assistant director on Avraham Heffner's film, Ma Kara? (What Happened?). Her daughter Stav was born in the summer of 1988, and her second daughter, Sahar, was born in 1990.

In 2004, Cohen and Gerstel divorced. In 2006, she met her partner, psychotherapist Adam Freeman. They reside in Jaffa.