Larry, born in 1946, is a native Detroiter (having studied in Wayne State University in the mid 1960’s) who, at the age of 25, walked away from a lucrative executive position in the home building industry to find more challenging ways to answer questions he had about himself as a person. After a year and 25,000 miles of traveling alone throughout the world on a motorcycle, Larry ended up in Israel.
Living there since 1972, he served in the IDF as a tank commander for 17 years, was a member of Israel’s first kibbutz (Degania Aleph) and has been serving Israeli industries since 1988 in various managerial, administrative and executive capacities.
He is the father of 3 Sabras (native-born Israelis: 2 daughters and a son) and the proud grandfather of the eleven-year-old son, five-year old daughter and three year old son of his oldest daughter.
Larry is the author of Voices from Armageddon, currently available worldwide via Amazon UK. Emek Medical Center serves an ethnically diverse population of about 500,000. The hospital’s motto and living philosophy of Coexistence through Medicine is a beacon of hope emanating from a region where fear, terror and mistrust have prevailed. In his book, Larry has brought into sharp focus the heroic efforts of both the Jewish and Arab physicians of the Emek Hospital, who work shoulder to shoulder in their daily quest to heal the Jews and Arabs who equally inhabit their immediate region.
Larry is known in diplomatic circles and Israel’s Foreign Ministry through his creative contacts with various Ambassadors to Israel and their ongoing relationships.
After a highly successful lecture in Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, Larry was invited by the Israel Foreign Ministry to present his lecture of “Israel at Eye-Level, through the Prism of a Medical Institution” to various audiences in Washington, D.C. According to Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai, “this is exactly the message that has been lacking in Israel’s public diplomacy efforts”. In Washington, Noam Katz, Israeli Minister of Public Diplomacy for the United States echoed those very sentiments.
Larry is also intimately involved with maintaining and creating collaborative professional relationships between Emek and American medical institutions and universities.
Today, Larry is a sought after lecturer, speaking about life in the Valley of Armageddon, where that the myths and negative imagery of Israel melt away and are replaced by a cradle of humanity ignored by the western media … even though it holds the key to hope.