Zvi Magen

Zvi Magen was born in 1945 in Chernivtsi

Magen was born in 1945 in the Soviet Union. His mother was a Holocaust survivor born in Poland, and his father served in the Red Army in World War II. He grew up in Chernivtsi, moved with his family to Poland, and immigrated to Israel in 1960.

His family was housed in a transit camp in Rishon LeZion, and he was taken in at Kibbutz Gan Shmuel. After his first army service he joined a settlement group at Kibbutz Eyal.

He served in the IDF from 1963 and later in Military Intelligence until 1987, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

He then joined Nativ and was sent to Moscow in 1988, later becoming its deputy head. In 1993 he became Israel's first ambassador to Ukraine, and in 1998 to 1999 he was ambassador to Russia. He headed Nativ from 1999 until October 2006.

From 2006 to 2009 he headed the Institute for Eurasian Studies at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Since July 2009 he has been a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies.