“Omer Yankelevich, Israel’s first female Haredi minister, quits politics.” Times of Israel, February 2, 2021. “Omer Yankelevich.” Accessed June 30, 2022. “Gantz appoints haredi woman as diaspora affairs minister.” Jerusalem Post, May 14, 2020. They have five children.īen Chaim, Avishai. Yankelevich is married to Yaron Yankelevich, a former full-time yeshiva student and current real estate agent whom she met on a shidduch (a date arranged by a matchmaker). Amid rumors (later proven untrue) that she was having an affair with Gantz, Yankelevich retired from politics before elections for the 24th Knesset. Yankelevich also ignited attacks from the left when she visited Samaria in her role as Diaspora Minister and said the government’s goal should be to apply sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). In her role as Diaspora Minister, Yankelevich included the Haredi public in the ministry’s projects for the first time, despite facing tremendous criticism from the Haredi community for becoming a politician: some communities frown on women in the public realm, and the two major Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, do not allow women on their party lists. She served as MK until April 6, 2021, when Israel’s 24th Knesset was sworn in, and as Diaspora Minister until June 13, 2021, when Nachman Shai from the Labor party took over. On May 14, 2020, she was appointed Diaspora Minister by Gantz. On April 9, 2019, Blue and White won 35 seats in the 21st Knesset elections, making Yankelevich the second-ever Haredi woman MK (Member of Knesset). In early 2019, Yankelevich was placed on Benny Gantz’s Resilience Party list for the upcoming Knesset elections, and when Gantz created the coalition party Blue and White, she was placed in the 23rd slot.

In 2015, she established the Just Begun Foundation to develop opportunities in Israel’s peripheral areas, particularly for the Haredi community she served as director until 2019. Yankelevich worked as a teacher from 2002 to 2007 and then as a law clerk for judges in Magistrate and District Courts until 2015. After earning a teaching certificate, she taught Hebrew and Judaic studies in the former Soviet Union, and she went on to earn a BA in teaching from Cambridge University, a BA in law from Ono College, and a Masters in Law from Bar Ilan University.

When she was five years old, her family became religious and moved to Bnei Brak, a nearby Haredi city. Yankelevich was born on May 25, 1978, in Tel Aviv. Yankelevich was the second Haredi woman to serve in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament). It is obvious, even from Zoom, what a strong and special community this is. On May 14, 2020, Israeli’s Blue and White party chairman Benny Gantz named Omer Yankelevich as Diaspora Minister, making her the first Haredi woman cabinet member. Minister Omer Yankelevich: Thank you all so much for opening the virtual doors to your beautiful community.

Omer yankelevich