Background
Tolkowsky was born in Tel Aviv in 1921 and was educated at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium.
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Dan Tolkovsky
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In 1938 he went to London to study at Imperial College London and graduated with a Bachelor of Science
Career
In 1936 he joined the Haganah. in engineering in 1941. In 1942 Tolkowsky volunteered for the Royal Air Force. He was part of a group of Palestinian-Jewish Royal Air Force pilots sent to train at a flight school in Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe).
He earned his wings in 1943, being the first in his group to complete the course, and went on to serve as a fighter pilot and later in aircraft reconnaissance.
He saw action over the Mediterranean area, Germany, and France. At the end of World World War II, he served as a transport pilot, and was later stationed in Palestine at Royal Air Force Lydda, in Lydda (now Lod).
He was discharged from the Royal Air Force in June 1946 with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After his discharge, Tolkowsky moved to Britain and worked as a mechanical engineer
In December 1947 he began helping to secretly purchase aircraft for Sherut Avir, the Haganah"s air arm and forerunner of the Israeli Air Force.
In 1948, a few days before the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Tolkowsky returned to Palestine. He served in the Israeli Air Force during the Israeli War of Independence, participating in bombing attacks on the Egyptian front. He was initially discharged from the Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik, but was recruited back in 1951.
He was appointed Commander of the Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik in May 1953 and served until July 1958.
During his time as commander, the Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik received its first fighter jets and took part in the Suez Crisis. He was seconded to the Israeli Ministry of Defense in 1958-1959.
He holds the rank of Major-General (Resident) in the Israel Defense Forces. In 1959 Tolkowsky joined the Discount Bank Investment Corporation (DBIC), originally an arm of the Bank, later a public company in Israel.
He was appointed as Managing Director in 1965 and Vice-Chairman in 1980.
Beginning in 1962, DBIC was the first financial institution in Israel to invest in local hi-tech industry. Tolkowsky helped Uzia Galil start the technology holding company Elron Electronic Industries in 1962. Tolkowsky also held a series of minor government posts.
In 1963 he joined the National Council for Research and Development.
He served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Radiation and Radioisotopes of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. In 1970 he headed a commission of inquiry that investigated an accident at Lod Airport.
In 1997 he served on the Ciechanover Commission, which investigated a failed Mossad assassination attempt against Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan. Tolkowsky is a Commandeur of the French Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur’Honneur (1958), holds a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology (1980), and holds an award from the joint United States-Israel Science and Technology Authority named after Yitzhak Rabin.
Achievements
Membership
From 1978-1980 he was a member of the Israel Securities Authority plenum. He also was a member of a committee examining the organizational structure of higher education institutions.
