Morris Kahn was born in March 1930[3] in Benoni, South Africa, to a Jewish family. He is the eldest child of Philip and Beattie Kahn.[4] He was an active member of the Zionist youth group, Habonim.[5]
In 1956, Kahn moved from South Africa to Israel with his wife, Jacqueline (Jackie) Maloon, and their two sons, Benjamin and David.[6][7][8]
Business ventures
Kahn’s business career in Israel began with a few business ventures, including a bicycle factory in Beit Shemesh in partnership with Kibbutz Tzora; and a cattle company in the Northern Galilee.[8]
In 1978 Kahn and Shmuel Meitar founded the Aurec Group,[9] an Israeli-based private equity firm which started with investments in the cable and telecom sectors.[10] This led to the installation of a fiber optic cable from Israel to Italy, which connected Israel to the rest of the world.[9]
His first major success began with the establishment of the Golden Pages telephone directory in Israel in 1968,[11] which led to the co-founding of Amdocs in 1982,[12] together with Shmuel and Tzvi Meitar.[13][5] Amdocs provides customer relationship management and billing software for big telecommunications firms.[7] The company, which is traded on NASDAQ (revenue in fiscal 2015: $3.6 billion) currently serves more than 300 clients in more than 90 countries,[14] and has about 26,000 employees.[9]
Aurec also owns Golden Channels, Israel's first cable company, founded in 1989[11][15] and Golden Lines, Israel's first international communications company, founded in 1996.[11]
In 1997 the Aurec Group acquired 50% of Netcom, the launch of AIG Golden Insurance and Alpha Visa-Card.[11]
He is a principal investor in Aurum Ventures and the clean tech water company Atlantium,[16] that uses UV rays to disinfect water,[5] and N-Trig, a manufacturer of multi-touch screens for computers. In 2016 Aurum Ventures invested $3 million in a new method of diagnosing cancer developed by Noklaiks (Nucleix) Israel.[17]
Time to Know is a digital education platform which Kahn first launched as a nonprofit organization focused on improving grade school education.[7]
Kahn, a former diver, founded Coral World International, a group of aquariums around the world in Eilat, Israel; Maui, Hawaii; Perth, Australia; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands;[18] Coral Island Nassau, The Bahamas; Oceanworld in Manly, Australia;[19] and elsewhere.[10]
Philanthropy
Kahn supports the work of Save a Child's Heart (SACH), an organization that brings israeli doctors around the world to perform life-saving surgery and medical monitoring for children of all races, religions, nationalities, and economic status.[20][21]
The Morris Kahn Initiative is a $4 million program to help develop pioneering cancer research at Tel Aviv University. The initiative’s aim is to develop 3D cancer modeling of live cancer tumors.[22]
"Big Data Maccabi", founded with contributions from Kahn, aims to help medical professionals diagnose illness using the information collected during blood tests, imaging and other diagnostic testing.[23]
He supports Serious Fun, a camp for children with terminal illness, and a therapeutic horse-riding camp for the disabled.[7]
Kahn founded Zalul in 1999, a non-profit foundation which cleans bodies of water in Israel.[7]
Kahn was also the main donor of SpaceIL, the first private company that managed a lunar mission - Beresheet. Beresheet was the first Israeli mission in deep space, the spacecraft was launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 Launcher[24] and it was aimed to land on the moon on 11 April 2019.[9] The attempt was unsuccessful, the spacecraft crashed into the Moon. The mission was still seen as a success.[25]
Kahn is a supporter of Ben-Gurion University and the National Institute for Biotechnology of the Negev.[26]
The Morris Kahn Institute for Human Immunology was funded by Kahn.[8]
In conjunction with the Weizman Institute, he founded the Kahn Family Research Center for Systems Biology of the Human Cell.[27]
Kahn supports the Morris Kahn and Maccabi Health Data Science Institute, to create a database for the 2.5 million members of the Maccabi Healthcare Services organization.[9]
He sponsors an Omo Valley and Jinka, Ethiopia-based project, Jinka Eye Camp, for volunteer Israeli surgeons to perform operations to restore eyesight to people living in rural villages suffering from eye diseases such as cataracts and trachoma.[28]
Honours
Kahn was named honorary president of the 20th Maccabiah by Maccabi World Union Chairman Yair Hamburger in November 2016, and opened the Games in July, 2017 in Jerusalem.[29]
Bar-Ilan University awarded Kahn an honorary doctorate for his support, bringing state-of-the-art labs and equipment to the university.[30]
