Efraim Laor

Efraim Laor was born in 1951 in Soviet Union

Efraim Laor was born in 1951 in the Soviet Union to the Likbornikov family. He immigrated to Israel with his family in 1960 and grew up in a transit camp near Rishon LeZion. He attended the military boarding school for command next to the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium.

He joined the IDF in 1969 and served in the Armored Corps, where he became a tank platoon commander. In the Yom Kippur War he led a company in the 7th Brigade during the battle of the Valley of Tears and received a commendation from the Northern Command chief. He later commanded Battalion 82 in Operation Litani, the Harel Brigade in the First Lebanon War, and the 7th Brigade from 1987.

In 1989 he became head of operational planning in the Operations Directorate, and he served there until his discharge in 1991. He holds a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in public policy and a doctorate in disaster management from King's College London.

He chaired the steering committee for national earthquake preparedness and headed the program in the geography of disaster areas at the University of Haifa. He heads a research center on surprise mass casualty events at the Holon Institute of Technology. In 2023 he was appointed to the steering committee of the Israeli National Guard, and he sits on the advisory board of the Bitchonistim movement.