Israelis love heroes whether they were were soldiers or scientists or Nobel Prize winners,. In the 1970s Sitex and its founder Efi Arazi became household names. Arazi had a magnetic personality He studied engineering and soon after graduation wanted to go to the United States, but did not have sufficient funds to pay the fare. He met the Jewish millionaire Efraim Monoson and convinced the latter to give him a job at Monoson's raincoat factories in the United States. But making raincoats was not for Arazi. He went to work at Utek where he developed ideas which he later used at Scitex. However the 6 Day War interfered and Arazi returned to Israel.
He convinced Dan Tolkowsky, then the head of Discount Investments to back him in starting up Scitex.
The company specialized in computer graphics which allowed the user to manipulate objects and colors in a picture.
Scitex became an instant hit and in 1972 became a public company. The shares more than doubled and the company and its founder Efi Arazi became the idols of the country.
Efi Arazi has retired and now lives in Tel-Aviv.