Avi Zohar

Avi Zohar was born in 1937 in Jerusalem

Avraham (Avi) Zohar was born in Jerusalem in 1937. He joined the IDF in 1956 and served in the Combat Engineering Corps.

In the Six-Day War he was the corps operations officer. He then set up the IDF river-crossing battalion, Battalion 605, which he led in the Battle of Karameh and the War of Attrition. In the Yom Kippur War he was called back from his studies at the Technion to command the combined pontoon battalion that helped bridge the Suez Canal.

As Northern Command engineering officer he led the engineering forces in Operation Litani. In March 1979 he was promoted to brigadier general and named Chief Education Officer, a post he held until October 1982. During his term the Makam program for special populations was founded.

In 1989 he became CEO of the Larom hotel chain. He was CEO of Magen David Adom from 1998 to 2005 and became its president in 2012.

He is married with 3 children. He fell ill with lymphoma, which he attributes to exposure to the polluted Kishon River, and sued the Defense Ministry.