Daniel Shimshoni

Daniel Shimshoni was born in 1919 in Pittsburgh

Daniel Shimshoni, born Levin, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was an industrialist in oxygen plants. In 1932 he studied for a few months at the Hebrew Reali School, and later lived in Jerusalem and London.

He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at Princeton University in 1941 and a master's in aeronautical engineering at the California Institute of Technology. During World War II he served in the US Army Air Forces and worked on the B-32 and B-36 bombers, also as a test pilot.

He came to Israel in 1948 with the Machal volunteers and advised Air Force commander Aharon Remez. He headed the force's engineering branch and training group and opened flight course number 1. In 1954 he became deputy head of the General Staff logistics branch, a move that caused a dispute between Moshe Dayan and Dan Tolkowsky.

After his release in 1956 he studied at Harvard University. From 1959 to 1964 he headed the National Council for Research and Development. He joined Tel Aviv University in 1966 as a professor of political science, and in 1969 co-founded TEKEM, which he chaired until 1973.

He was elected to the Herzliya city council in 1969. In 1977 he helped found the Dash party led by Yigael Yadin and then ran the neighborhood renewal project. He was married to Rose and had 4 children.