Published: 26 May 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
OMER YANKELEVICH WAS SWORN in as Israel’s Diaspora affairs minister this week, becoming the first ultra-Orthodox woman ever to join the cabinet.
The mother of five, 42 next Monday, had been running a small nonprofit that, among other things, assists Haredi artists when former army chief of staff Benny Gantz plucked her out of anonymity and recruited her to his new political party last year. Over the course of three election campaigns, Yankelevich, a trained teacher and lawyer, would emerge as one of his closest confidantes within Kahol Lavan.
How a former Bais Yaakov girl worked her way up the political ladder and into the inner circle of Israel’s next prime minister has naturally sparked curiosity. Especially considering that Yankelevich – at least by her own account – never had political aspirations.
The daughter of two ba’alei tshuvah (secular Jews who embraced Orthodoxy), both immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Yankelevich was born in Tel Aviv. Her early childhood years were spent in a neighbourhood popular among the city’s bohemian crowd.
Her father, Yaakov (“Yasha”) Gilinsky, worked as an actor, clown and juggler, while her mother, Adi, was a psychiatric nurse.
FULL STORY This ultra-Orthodox lawyer is tasked with saving Israel's diaspora ties (Haaretz)
Photo: MK Omer Yankelevich at a Kahol Lavan press conference in September, 2019 (Tomer Appelbaum)
