Noam Lanir spent the first years of his childhood at the Hatzor Air Force Base, where his father, Lt-Col. Avi Lanir, served as a fighter pilot and squadron commander in the Yom Kippur War. He was captured in Syria, where he was tortured to death, without revealing the state secrets with which he was entrusted. Noam also lost his uncle and his cousin in that war.
Noam completed his high school studies in Ramat Hasharon, enlisted in a pilot's course from which he dropped out a year later, and completed his military service at the unmanned aerial vehicle unit of the IDF Intelligence Corps.
In 1998, he founded an internet marketing company called Empire Online, which was listed seven years later at a value of one billion dollars on the London Stock Exchange. Noam is a serial entrepreneur who led other companies such as Babylon and an Internet medical tourism company.
From 2006-2010, he led the Holocaust Survivors protest and since 2013, he has dedicated himself to the establishment and promotion of pre-military programs to prepare youths for military service. In the past year, he was also one of the leaders of the protest against the BB Netanyahu proposed legal reform.
When did you realize that the country was in trouble?
On October 7th, the sirens woke me up at 6:30 in the morning.
At 7am, I called my friend Ofer Tavori, a resident of Be’eri who served with my uncle in the Yom Kippur War. My uncle was a tank commander and was killed near Ofer. On the morning of the Hamas attacks, I joked and said, ‘Ofer, look what they arranged for us in honor of October 7, 1973, an orchestra in honor of the 50th anniversary.’ Ofer told me that he had been shot and was locked in his safe room. That’s when I knew we were in trouble.
Later in the day, we saw Hamas Toyota pickup trucks in Sderot and heard Channel 12 reporter Tamir Stayman talking about people who wrote to him that they were in distress.
How did you decide to take matters into your own hands?
We were all shocked on the first day. My watch indicated that I had walked 32 km at home that day. In the evening, I was informed that my friend Col. Roy Levy was killed. His family was in Corfu. His daughter called and said they had to return to Israel the next day. I arranged for a private plane to bring them back to Israel because all the flights were cancelled. I did the same for many other families who needed to come home so that parents would not receive the news on the phone.
On October 10th, I received a WhatsApp message from a person who said he was a supplier to the Ministry of Defense and was working on equipment solutions for the soldiers. He said he needed to fly two shipments of bullet-proof vests. Within 10 hours of the request, they were in Israel. The goal was to bring reliable ceramic vest samples that would meet the required standard.
From then on, I received a stream of requests of all kinds, from flying soldiers back from all over the world to assisting with all sorts of technical needs on the battlefield, all sorts of needs of our people, and I responded accordingly. In addition, I spent countless hours with the survivors of the Supernova music festival and funded the PTSD support programs.
How do people reach you?
People reach me through social media and through my presence in the media. This includes my response to a fake and outrageous story of my being a collaborator of Hamas! I responded to that story by calling the whole country to unity.
I am now very active with the families of the hostages. The formula is to be present and available everywhere. Our strength is in our unity and together we will win this war.
This article was written in cooperation with Noam Lanir