Barzilay was brought up in Rehovoth, where she had her elementary and secondary education. She obtained her B.A. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the Faculties of History and Sociology. Barzilay served as a Lieutenant in the Israeli army's Department of History. When discharged, she obtained her M.A. at the Hebrew University in the Faculties of History and Jewish History. Following a period of research in England, she returned to Israel and was granted a Ph.D. Her doctoral work was on "A National Home for the Jewish People – The Concept in British Political Thinking and Policy Making, 1917–1923". At the same time, she studied at the Faculty of Education of the Hebrew University and was granted a Teaching Certificate. She then taught History at the secondary school in Rehovoth during 1958–1960.
Academic activities
In the years 1961–1974, Barzilay was a researcher and research editor on the Editorial Board of Weizmann's Letters and Papers, Jerusalem, and the Weizmann Archives in Rehovoth. In the years 1966–1969 she lived in London, where she was sent by the editorial board of Weizmann's letters and papers, to carry out research and to retrieve material at the British archives about Weizmann's activities during World War I, especially in connection with the Balfour Declaration. She also published articles on this subject. On her return to Israel, she edited Volumes VII and VIII of Weizmann's letters which were later published in Hebrew and English. In the years 1974–1980 Barzilay was research director and editor of Samuel Tolkowsky's "Zionist Political Diary, London 1915–1919, on the Making of Balfour Declaration" published by the Institute of Zionist Research at Tel-Aviv University and the Zionist Library, Jerusalem. In the years 1974–1985, Barzilay was research director and editor of the survey of archival sources of the history of British Mandate in Palestine, 1914–1948, a project sponsored and financed by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem, Israel. The results were later produced in a disk.
The letters and papers of Chaim Weizmann, Volume VII, 1975,, Keter Press, Jerusalem, co-editor; and, 1977,, Keter Press, Jerusalem, editor; and 1977 Hebrew, Bialik Institute, Jerusalem, editor
S. Tolkowsky, Zionist Political Diary, London, 1915–1917: On the Making of the Balfour Declaration, 1981,, the Institute of Zionist Research at Tel-Aviv University and "the Zionist Library", Jerusalem, editor
Jehuda Reinharz, Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman, 1996,, "The Zionist Library", Jerusalem, translator
Archival Sources for the History of British Mandate in Palestine, 1914–1948, a database of Documents in Israeli Archives,, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem, 1985, research director and editor
A National Home for the Jewish People, The concept in British Political Thinking and Policy Making, 1917-1923, by Dvorah Barzilay-Yegar, First published in 2017 by Vallentine Mitchell.
Co-Author with Moshe Yegar, The "Uganda" Crisis in Zionism'', Carmel Publishing, Jerusalem, 2020,
Selected articles
On the Genesis of the Balfour Declaration, Zion, Jerusalem, 1968
Crisis as a Turning Point – Weizmann in World War I, Studies in Zionism, Tel-Aviv, 1982,
The Zionist Policy of Chaim Weizmann in World War I, Ideology and Zionist Policy, Jerusalem, 1978,
The Ormsby Gore Reports from Palestine, April–May 1918, Zionism, Tel-Aviv, 1977,
Crisis as a Turning Point – Weizmann in World War I, Statesmen in Time of Crisis, Tel-Aviv, 1977,
