Gideon Koren

Gideon Koren was born in 1947 in Tel Aviv

Koren was born in Tel Aviv in 1947 and grew up in Kiryat Ono. His father was the chief engineer of the Reading Power Station of the Israel Electric Corporation.

He finished high school in Tel Aviv in 1965 and later studied medicine at Tel Aviv University. In the army he served as a combat medic in Nahal, and after medical school he joined Unit 669.

In 1971, while still a medical student, he founded the group The Brothers and The Sisters and wrote much of its music. He set poems by Natan Yonatan and Yehuda Amichai to music and wrote many works for children. His songs won first place at the Israel Song Festival in 1974 and 1980.

In 1982 he moved to Canada and worked at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the University of Toronto. In 1985 he founded Motherisk, a clinical and research program that later closed after concerns over its forensic testing. He gave up his medical license in Ontario during an investigation, and several of his papers were retracted.

In 2016 he left his work in Canada and returned to Israel. He lives in Tel Aviv, works in pharmacology research at Maccabi Healthcare Services and teaches at several Israeli universities.