Avraham Ben-Shoshan

Avraham Ben-Shoshan was born in 1940 in Turkey

Ben-Shoshan was born in Turkey in 1940 to a Jewish family. He came to Israel with his parents at age 6, and the family settled in Kfar Saba. As a teenager he left school to work on fishing boats, where he learned the basics of seamanship.

In 1956 he enrolled in the Mevo'ot Yam maritime school at Michmoret and finished in 1959. He later studied at the US Naval War College in Newport. He holds a master's degree in history, political science and strategy.

He joined the Navy in 1959 and finished the naval officers course in 1962. He served in submarines and was deputy commander of INS Tanin in the Six-Day War. He then moved to missile boats, served in the Red Sea during the Yom Kippur War, and led the naval officers school from 1975.

In 1979 he became commander of the missile boat flotilla, and in 1981 commander of Haifa base. In January 1985 he took command of the Navy from Ze'ev Almog, with the rank of Aluf. His term ended in 1989, and he left the IDF soon after.

He later worked in government under Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. In 2000 he joined a public sector reform center in the Prime Minister's Office. In September 2020 he received a lifetime achievement award.