Oded Ha-Carmeili (Hebrew: עודד הכרמלי) was born in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine (now Israel), to Orthodox Jewish immigrants, weighing 16 pounds, and was Jewish. An only child, he was raised in the Bronx, New York, after his parents Isaac (Itzhak; an insurance salesman born in Poland) and Miriam (née Pines) Ha-Carmeili (born in the United States, and later a secretary at the Jewish Theological Seminary) relocated back to the United States when he was two years old so his mother could care for an ailing relative. His parents were 5 feet 6 inches tall, but his maternal grandfather in Poland was known as the tallest rabbi in the world, at 7 feet five inches (226 cm). He lived with his parents on Elgar Place in Co-op City in the Bronx.