PodCats 6:6:9 Minutes of the American Friends of Unit 669

Our guest served in team 42, he made Aliya from Toronto Canada, and served as a lone soldier.

After the military service, he proceeded to medical school as a scholarship recipient from our alumni organization.

He was called on Oct. 7th while was in the US for his studies, and served since then in Gaza for 270 days in a row in our special vehicles division and participated in hundreds of rescue missions during the war.

Our guest served in team 35, then he became a combat paramedic, and today he is a combat physician, an Orthopedic Surgeon Resident at the Tel Aviv Medical Center and is the Head of Research at the Levin Center of Surgical Innovation & 3D Printing.

He was called on Oct. 7th and served for 152 days in Gaza in a row in our special vehicles division and participated in hundreds of rescue missions during the war.

Our guest served in team 30, he is a professional photographer that decided to volunteer when the war started to document it from inside Gaza and show the IDF and especially Unit 669 from behind the camera.

He has more than 120 GB of footage and he is already created a book that will be in the stores soon.

Our guest has served in Team 35 of Unit 669 as a combat soldier and a commander. Additionally, he served as the Unit’s R&D department manager. 

He is an entrepreneur, who founded a successful company in the internet advertising industry, ad tech 8 year ago and serves as its Co-CEO until today. Under and additional to this company, they founded another few sub companies that are working in the same in industry but on different products. 

Moshe's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/moshe-cohen-53521a6a/

Yoram Behiri served as the Chairman, President & CEO of Tnuva USA, Inc. He established and managed a strong distribution network and supply chain in the US and Canada, and working alongside large distributors like Kroger, Costco, and Shoprite.

Yoram has served as an officer in the Israel Defense Force.

Yoram is one of our donors and for the last 4 years, serves as a board member and is the treasurer of the AFU669.

Yoram's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yorambehiri/

In this episode, we invite you to join Bar Reuven, the Co-founder of the CAT 669 Alumni Association and the Executive Vice President of Development for the American Friends of Unit 669 (AFU669). Bar is also an accomplished entrepreneur, having sold his first startup, Mishlohof, a few years ago. Currently, he serves as the Co-founder and CEO of Dishare.

Accompanying him is Dr. Jonathan Feffer, an innovation and mentoring expert who assists US and Israeli startups and multinationals in designing and implementing their innovation strategies.

Dr. Feffer is actively involved in mentoring and judging at Harvard’s Innovation Lab and serves as a mentoring supervisor at the Cat 669 Alumni Association. Additionally, he imparts knowledge in innovation management and strategy at Reichman University.

Their guest for this episode is Amitai Serphos, who has served in Team 33 of Unit 669 and has since forged a successful career working with prominent companies such as Moovit and Lili. Amitai holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics and philosophy from Tel Aviv University and an MBA in data-driven business specialization from Reichman University. He specializes in growth and marketing.

Special thanks to the Ariela House Radio Studio in Tel Aviv for hosting us, and gratitude to Jonathan.

For access to our newsletter, podcasts, or to get involved, please join our mailing list or reach out to us through our website at: WWW.AFU669.ORG.

Thank you once again, stay well, and we eagerly anticipate our next episode.

Our guest has served in a large range of roles in law enforcement, world militaries, and special task forces including Unit 669.

He has an extensive education in medicine and received his Master’s degree in Extreme Medicine and Humanitarian Aid from the University of Exeter in England.

For the last 16 years he has been working for one of the wealthiest and well-known families in the world, the Adelson family from Las Vegas.

His current role in the company is Vice President of Global Health, Humanitarian Aid & Disaster Relief.

He is the founder of the Team 5 foundation and runs international projects all around the world.

Eric's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericslinder/

Team 5:

https://www.team-5.org/

Our guest served as a combat medic and as the medical department’s deputy commander.

He is a scholarship from our alumni association.

He achieved his dream of being a medical doctor against all odds and after a sad family disaster.

He lives in Ashkelon with his wife and their 7 kids.

Our guest served as a combat soldier in 38 team. 

He is probably the only person ever who served in Unit 8200 and then in Unit 669.

He holds a bachelor’s and Master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.

He worked in Stanford and Lyft, and today he serves as a Senior software engineer at Apple and lives in Silicon Valley.

Guy Amdur's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-amdur-9ab356a2/

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the 21st team.

He grew up in Tel Aviv, started unprofessionally his career when he was 12 years old, and then again when he was 28 years old.

He is a film director and screenwriter with movies that won many awards and festivals.

In 2001 he started working with the big players in Hollywood such as Gerard Butler who played in his movie.

He has been the creative force behind a number of projects including feature films and documentaries, and has directed, written, and produced projects from major production entities such as Netflix and Warner Bros.

In his spare time, he is a DJ, and a great one.

Ariel's Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Vromen Ariel's IMDB profile: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1033517/

Ariel's Soundcloud profile: https://soundcloud.com/user-948019924

Our guest served as a combat rescue soldier in the 32nd team.

He served as an officer and a team leader.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and economics from Tel Aviv University and MBA from MIT.

He is a Senior Manager of Product Management - Supply Chain by Amazon and lives in Santa Barbara with his family. Johnathan Soreff 's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnathan-johnny-soreff-194142b2/

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit, team 34.

He grew up in an orthodox family, worked at the Israel Ministry of Finance, and since then moved his life to Gibraltar and London, to pursue a career in the gaming – gambling industry.     Shahar represents the unit and the alumni organization in London and the area, and along with his team, he participated in our PTSD workshop.

Shahar's LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahar-yanai/

Our guest is a big Zionist, he served as our annual gala chairman in 2022, he is one of our major donors and one of the first board members of AFU669.

He started his 33-year career in the Financial Services industry in 1982 at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc and climb up and served in many management roles in the company and in the industry.

In 2015 he decided to pursue an entrepreneurial path and founded a few companies and a venture capital.

Peter Feinberg's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-feinberg-5737b7131/

Boxcar Partners:

https://www.boxcarpartners.com/ 

Immuneering:

https://immuneering.com/

Bridge Bio:

https://bridgebio.com/

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit’s first team.

He is originally from South Africa, he and his wife Linda have two kids and four grandkids.

He likes to travel and he likes Polo and Car racing.

Brian had a successful real estate business, and in the last few years he invests in startups. Most importantly for us, Brian has been one of the first donors to our organizations, since early 2015.

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit, in team 33.

He managed the lectures project successfully of our organization a few years back and he participated in our mentoring program as a mentee.

He is married to Hadar and a father of two.

Tal is an entrepreneur; he is the co-founder and the CEO of NoTraffic.

NoTraffic is the world’s Leading Mobility Platform,
The platform is installed at signalized intersections, and it serves as a critical digital foundation for the majority of advanced mobility applications in urban environments.
The company serves some of the largest states, including California, Texas, and Pennsylvania.
In 2022 the company was awarded a prestigious place on the TIME 100 World Most Influential Companies list.

Tal's LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tal-kreisler/

NoTraffic website: 

https://notraffic.tech/

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit, team 22.

Dr. Ofer Daphna is an inventor, entrepreneur, and researcher, owner of several patents in the field of ophthalmology. He specializes in corneal and cataract surgery and is currently a senior Ophthalmologist at Assuta medical center, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Dr. Daphna is a high-volume cataract and corneal surgeon, conducting over 1000 operations per year. He is the inventor of the EndoArt implant and the Hyper-CL™ therapeutic contact lens, as well as a co-founder of EyeYon Medical. 

Besides serving as Medical Director, he is also a Board Member.

Dr. Daphan's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ofer-daphnah-3bba6339/  

Company’s website:

https://eye-yon.com/

An article about the company:

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3899001,00.html

Our guest in this episode has a different angle and point of view about the combat rescue operation of unit 669 and the Israeli Air Force, from above.

Lieutenant colonel Meidan Bar served as a combat helicopter pilot and lead many rescue missions with unit 669, mostly behind enemy lines and in Lebanon territory.

Meidan is an El Al Airlines pilot for 17 years and serve as the chairman of the Israel Airline Aviators Association for the last 5 years.

A few months ago, Meidan published his first book, “Crossing permit”, where he shares his experience as a combat rescue pilot and all the impact on his life around it.

Eugene is a big Zionist and one of our donors for many years.

He is a successful optometrist with 15 clinics in NY, and he is the CEO of his own startup company that invented a patent for a medical device.

He served in the Soviet Union’s army during Chernobyl as a nurse, and understand deeply the importance of medical force in the army.

He is highly trained in Krav Maga and believes that everybody needs to know Krav Maga and how to protect themselves.

Eugene Orloff's LinkedIn profile: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugene-orloff-a9479a1aa/

Eugene Orloff's Startup company: 

https://tear-dx.com/

Our guest served as a combat medic in the unit.

Yoav is a business owner who trains thousands of young people before their military service on how to maximize their potential and be prepared to serve in the IDF and elite units.

Yoav has been on both sides of the mission- as part of the rescue team for many years, but he was also medically evacuated after a 162 kv straight strike to the body with a high-power line, during a routine training exercise with his group.

Yoav will also be one of our speakers at our annual event of this year on Nov. 10th.

Tickets to our annual event:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-annual-event-of-tribute-of-the-american-friends-of-unit-669-tickets-366636127527

Yoav's LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoav-asa-23288637/

Yoav's TEDx talk:

https://youtu.be/Su12fq1sdiU

Major, Dr. R.S, MD, served as the first combat female doctor in the unit and was responsible for the whole educational medical department in the unit.

She runs Marathons and like rock climbing.

Dr. R.S is attending Cardiac Surgeon working at Wolfson medical center in Israel.

In the last 1.5 years, she completed an Advanced and minimally invasive cardiac surgery fellowship in NYU Langone Health.

She participated in worldwide and crossed borders missions during her service.

Since we are celebrating one year since we started the Podcats initiative, as we did on our few episodes ago, we decided that this time it will be a little bit special, and we will interview, each other (:

Our guest this time is our co-host, Dr. Jonathan Feffer. 

An innovation and mentoring expert. Yoni helps US and Israeli startups and multinationals design and implement their innovation strategy. 

He is a mentor and judge at Harvard’s Innovation Lab, and a mentoring supervisor at the Cat 669 Alumni Association. 

He teaches innovation management and strategy at Reichman university.

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanfeffer/

Personal website:

https://www.jonathanfeffer.com/

In this episode, our guest served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he participated in our organization’s delegation to Jamaica in 2019, he is a Zionist who made Aliya just so he could serve in the unit, and he got the IAF Special Operations Commander Certificate of Excellence.

D.C still serves in active combat reserves, so his name will stay casified.

Our guest served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he grew up in a Kibbutz and he is a father of 4. 

He is an Investigative-documentary filmmaker and producer with a long and illustrious career in Israeli TV and print media, he is the author of 2 best-selling books – Tze’elim and catching a murderer. 

He was part of a cohort of 5 journalists from all over the world that were chosen to participate in a special program at Stanford University, and he just published and exposed the full story of the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

Omri's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/omri-assenheim-7149ba1a1/

In this episode, our guest is one of AFU669’s biggest supporters and donors and a well-known philanthropist.

He is originally from Haifa, Israel, and served in the IDF during the Yom Kippur war. 

He lives in Los Angeles today, he is a real estate entrepreneur with a portfolio valued at over 1 billion USD. 

He co-founded the IAC (Israel American Council) and was its chairman, and is very involved in supporting

Israel and opposing BDS, and a few years ago he was chosen as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.

Adam' LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammilstein/

Adam and Gila Milstein Foundation:

https://www.milsteinff.org/

Our guest is my co-host, he served as a combat soldier in team 37, he served as an officer and a team leader. 

He is a Social and business entrepreneur, he co-founded the Cat 669 alumni association, was its CEO for 5 years, and he is now the Executive VP of Development at AFU669, he founded his first startup and sold it and he is now a co-founder and CEO of his new startup called Dishare. 

When we recorded this episode he was about to be a father, and now he is already a happy father to Emmy.

Bar Reuven.

Bar's LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bar-reuven-a03b67b0/

Dishare's website:

https://www.dishare-app.com/

Mike Silberg served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he participated as a mentee in one of our organization’s mentoring programs, he is an entrepreneur, and an expert in building communities and teaching others how to maximize their network in the most effective way.

Mike's LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesilbergcommunitypro/

Our guest served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he served in the protective edge operation, got the presidential medal of excellence during his service, and is originally from Sarasota, Florida. He manages Private Equity, is married, a father of one boy, and CEO of 3 companies.

Adam Ross's Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamross5/

Our guest today served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he is alumni of Harvard business school, he is an entrepreneur, and in the last year, he transitioned his business life due to the pandemic, and managed to establish a company that has already more than 35 million dollars in revenue.

Omri's Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/omri-shafran/

Texas Medical:

https://texasmedicaltechnology.com/

Ynet article about Omri (Hebrew)

https://www.ynet.co.il/economy/article/BkIuMWLm00

Daniel De Castro served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he participated in one of our organization’s PTSD workshops, he is an entrepreneur, he founded Maelys, a cosmetic products company with his teammate and evaluated a few weeks ago in 130 million dollars.

Company's website:

https://www.maelyscosmetics.com/

Daniel's Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-de-castro-531b2857/

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/body-care-brand-ma-lys-040114459.html

Tom served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he served as a lone soldier, he is a board member at the American Friends of Unit 669, he is a marketing expert and an entrepreneur.

He founded and brought his last company, Atlantic Coast Brands, to a one-billion-dollar revenue and more than 10 million customers worldwide.

This year he founded another new company that is expected to be even bigger than his last one.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/t-shipley/

https://www.tshipley.com/

https://www.foundrybrands.com/

For the past two decades David Levy has represented Israel around the world - Cameroon, Latvia, South Korea and more recently serving as the Consul General of Israel in Montreal! In this episode, he shares the challenges of a career diplomat promoting trade and strengthening cultural ties with Israel.

Gary Heiman's company:

https://www.standardtextile.com/

A Hebrew article about Gary Heiman:

https://www.calcalist.co.il/local/articles/0,7340,L-3677767,00.html

An English article about Gary Heiman:

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-1000304184

Our Podcats is called that way based on our mascot - the black Cat which symbolizes our unique skillset, Flexibility, Alertness, and Creativity. Whatever the situation, we land on our feet and quickly adjust! Each Podcats is 21 minutes long: 6 to learn about their unique connection to the unit, 6 minutes to get to know our interviewee, and 9 minutes to get inspired and learn from their unique experiences, insights, and advice.

UPJF Organization: http://www.upjf.org/

G20 Supermarkets chain: https://www.supermarchesg20.com/

An interview with Mr. Amiach: https://mazaltop.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/edward-amiach-interview/

Our Podcats is called that way based on our mascot - the black Cat which symbolizes our unique skillset, Flexibility, Alertness, and Creativity. Whatever the situation, we land on our feet and quickly adjust! Each Podcats is 21 minutes long: 6 to learn about their unique connection to the unit, 6 minutes to get to know our interviewee, and 9 minutes to get inspired and learn from their unique experiences, insights, and advice

Payoneer: https://www.payoneer.com/

Acro Yoga Flashmob:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Syy5Lw27o&t=4s

Team 8: https://team8.vc/team/

Our Podcats is called that way based on our mascot - the black Cat which symbolizes our unique skillset, Flexibility, Alertness, and Creativity. Whatever the situation, we land on our feet and quickly adjust! Each Podcats is 21 minutes long: 6 to learn about their unique connection to the unit, 6 minutes to get to know our interviewee, and 9 minutes to get inspired and learn from their unique experiences, insights, and advice

Our Podcats is called that way based on our mascot - the black Cat which symbolizes our unique skillset, Flexibility, Alertness, and Creativity. Whatever the situation, we land on our feet and quickly adjust! Each Podcats is 21 minutes long: 6 to learn about their unique connection to the unit, 6 minutes to get to know our interviewee, and 9 minutes to get inspired and learn from their unique experiences, insights, and advice. 

Our Podcats is called that way based on our mascot - the black Cat which symbolizes our unique skillset, Flexibility, Alertness, and Creativity. Whatever the situation, we land on our feet and quickly adjust! Each Podcats is 21 minutes long: 6 to learn about their unique connection to the unit, 6 minutes to get to know our interviewee, and 9 minutes to get inspired and learn from their unique experiences, insights, and advice. Our guest, Ronen Lam served as a combat rescue officer at the unit, he is a serial entrepreneur using Cold Plasma technology to improve our lives in many aspects.

Our Podcats is called that way based on our mascot - the black Cat which symbolizes our unique skillset, Flexibility, Alertness, and Creativity.

Whatever the situation, we land on our feet and quickly adjust!

Each Podcats is 21 minutes long: 6 to learn about their unique connection to the unit, 6 minutes to get to know our interviewee, and 9 minutes to get inspired and learn from their unique experiences, insights, and advice.

Our guest, Ronen Lam served as a combat rescue officer at the unit, he is a serial entrepreneur using Cold Plasma technology to improve our lives in many aspects.   

Our Podcats is called that way based on our mascot - the black Cat which symbolizes our unique skillset, Flexibility, Alertness, and Creativity.

Whatever the situation, we land on our feet and quickly adjust!

Each Podcats is 21 minutes long: 6 to learn about their unique connection to the unit, 6 minutes to get to know our interviewee, and 9 minutes to get inspired and learn from their unique experiences, insights, and advice. 

Our guest, Eyal Levy served as a combat rescue soldier at the unit, he established a worldwide online and offline business and divided his life between Israel and the United States.