[2] Zohar Zisapel was born in Tel Aviv, one of three children of immigrant parents from Poland who owned and ran a shoe store on Herzl Street, then one of the city’s main arteries.

[citation needed] Zisapel worked for the Electronic Research Department of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv and rose to become its head.

[5] In the mid-1970s, Yehuda Zisapel, Zohar's elder brother, founded a small private company that marketed data communications products.

Operating from small, cramped quarters in the back of Bynet’s offices, Zohar oversaw the development of RAD’s first product, a miniature modem that would revolutionize the industry.

While RAD would go on to release its first fiber optic product in 1986 and its first multiplexer one year later, the Zisapels were developing new ideas for communications products for enterprise applications, including adapters for servers and security appliances, integrated network management solutions, video conferencing infrastructure and development tools, wireless devices, and other industry niches.

This approach grew into the RAD Group, a family of independent companies that develop, manufacture, and market solutions for diverse segments of the networking and telecommunications industries.

The system has been generating electricity since 2012, and its operation funds several tuition assistance scholarships awarded annually to computer science students.

[16] Zisapel was the father of two children: a daughter, Klil, an accomplished artist and Hebrew writer whose books have been translated into German, Dutch and Chinese, and Michael, a physician.