I was born in the U.S.S.R. to Holocaust survivors. Since my parents were Polish citizens before WWII the Soviet government allowed them to emigrate, or repatriate, to Poland in 1956. Our plan was to continue to Israel without stopping in Poland. This didn't work out. On the day we arrived in Warsaw the Soviets ordered the Polish government to stop the practice of allowing Jews to go on to Israel. We were stuck in Poland until 1961. The one thing I got from this is fluency in both Polish and Russian.

When we arrived in Israel I was still of elementary school age. It took a short while to get used to the new environment. It wasn't too difficult – immigrants were everywhere and anyway at a young age these things are not as tough as later in life.

By the time I was done with high school I was a typical Israeli kid. I wanted to serve in an elite IDF unit but, since I don't take orders very well, I also wanted to be an officer to minimize the number of order givers. The only way to achieve both objectives was to try to get into a program that allowed high school graduates to continue straight to college, while doing some service during the summer breaks. If successful the graduates would start their service after officer school. There was a lot of competition but somehow I managed to get accepted and graduate.

I earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and served as an infantry officer with the Israel Defense Forces.

After finishing the compulsory service I started working at a company that soon became one of the major subcontractors for the Merkava, Israel's first tank.  I was a member of the design team and was fairly soon promoted to head Research and Development. My interests shifted from mechanical design to ballistic armor but I also worked on weapons systems for both Israel and other countries.

In 1987 I moved to the U.S, obtaining citizenship through a program for internationally recognized unique expertise and set up my own consulting R&D company. 

I'm fluent in five languages and enjoy reading history and fiction in all of them, especially if the subject is mid-twentieth century Europe.  My research in ballistics, which earned me a Ph.D. from California Coast University and is expressed these days mostly by shooting hand guns at paper.  I dabble in web design and programming, avidly follow political and military activities, and am happily married. The Shield is my first novel and my second is the sequel: Beyond The Shield