David Katz

David Katz was born in 1946 in Germany

David Katz was born in Germany in 1946. He immigrated to Israel at the age of three.

He joined the IDF in 1964 and was assigned to the Golani Brigade, where he trained as a combat soldier and an infantry officer. He served in Battalion 51 and fought in the Six-Day War as the battalion's operations officer. In 1969 he took command of the Golani reconnaissance unit and led dozens of raids in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

In the Yom Kippur War he led Battalion 17 in the second battle for Mount Hermon. He later headed the office of Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur, commanded the Yiftach Armored Brigade and studied in the United States. He commanded the Golani Brigade from 1978, the 49th Armored Division in the First Lebanon War, and later the IDF doctrine department.

He left the IDF in 1986 and went into private business. As chairman of Golani Heritage, he initiated the Golani Trail in 2016, a hiking trail of 1,200 km from Mount Hermon to Eilat.