Kobi Marom

Kobi Marom was born in 1960 in Meknes

Yaakov (Kobi) Marom was born in Meknes, Morocco, in 1960. In May 1963 he moved to Israel with his family and grew up in Rosh Pina. In 1968 the family moved to Kiryat Bialik.

He studied at ORT Bialik in a science track and belonged to the Scouts. He played basketball for the Hapoel Haifa youth team and was in the Israeli cadet national squad.

He joined the IDF in August 1978 and served in Sayeret Golani. In the First Lebanon War he took command of his force near the Beaufort after the commanders were wounded, and later led a company in Beirut. He later commanded Operation Moses with Shaldag, then Battalions 17 and 13, the Hermon Brigade and the Hiram Formation.

He studied at the University of Haifa and later earned a master's degree at the National Defense University in Washington. He left the IDF in December 2000 and became a research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He lectures on Israel's security challenges, focusing on the northern front, and lives in Neve Ativ in the Golan with his wife Karen and their 5 children.