Shlomo Kalish

Shlomo Kalish was born in 1952 in Haifa

Shlomo Kalish was born on February 18, 1952, in Haifa. His parents, Issacher Dov and Haya Kalish, were Holocaust survivors. His father worked in construction and later opened a grocery store in the Kiryat Eliyahu neighborhood.

He joined the IDF in 1970 and trained as a pilot. He flew Skyhawk fighter jets and fought in the Yom Kippur War, leaving the military in 1975.

He earned a B.Sc. in mathematics from Tel Aviv University in 1977. He then completed a master's degree in management and a PhD in operations research at MIT.

In 1981 he began teaching at the University of Rochester, where he became a professor. He returned to Israel to join the management faculty of Tel Aviv University and also advised high-tech companies. In 1994 he set up an investment firm called Jerusalem Global, and in 1999 he founded the venture fund Jerusalem Global Ventures and the internet investment firm Yazam.com.

His fund invested in companies such as Galileo, Creo, QXL, Mellanox and Saifun Semiconductors. He became religiously observant and began wearing a kippah in 1989, later joining Chabad. He founded the charity Shalom Beineinu and serves on the boards of several nonprofits and academic institutions.