Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg ( he, מנואל טרכטנברג born 21 September 1950) is an

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...

economist and chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the

Council for Higher Education in Israel The Council for Higher Education in Israel ( he, המועצה להשכלה גבוהה, ''HaMo'atza LeHaskala Gevoha'') is a supervisory body for universities and colleges in Israel. It is the only organization with the authority to award academic ...

. He was appointed by Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

in August 2011 to lead a

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

for negotiations with the Israeli protesters and for recommending economic measures to overcome the crisis. Trajtenberg joined the

Zionist Union The Zionist Union ( he, הַמַחֲנֶה הַצִיּוֹנִי, translit. ''HaMaḥaneh HaẒiyoni'', lit. ''the Zionist Camp'') was a centre-left political alliance in Israel. It was established in December 2014 by the Israeli Labor Par ...

list in December 2014 and was elected to the Knesset in 2015. However, he left politics in 2017.

Biography

Trajtenberg was born in Córdoba,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, and

emigrated to Israel Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

at the age of 16. He graduated from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

with a major in economics in 1973 and completed a master's degree in economics and sociology in 1976, also at the Hebrew University. In 1984 he received his Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

for work entitled "Economic Analysis of Product Innovation: The Case of CT Scanners." Upon completing his Ph.D., he returned to Israel, and has since been serving as a professor in the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

School of Economics. Trajtenberg served in several public roles. He was a consultant to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor and to the Prime Minister's Office. In 2006 he was appointed the first chair of the Israeli National Economic Council, a post from which he resigned in 2009. In 2011, he was appointed to head a committee for negotiating with the Israeli protesters and recommending economic measures to overcome the crisis. Trajtenberg said the government ignored his committee's recommendations to alleviate the housing shortage and skyrocketing prices as those issues were highlighted in the

Olim L'Berlin ''Olim L'Berlin'' (Hebrew: , lit. "Let's Ascend to Berlin" but more accurately "Let's Move to Berlin," also known as the Milky protest) was the name of a Facebook page that coined a snowclone in 2014, and was terminated in early 2015. Comparing th ...

campaign in the summer of 2014. He is a member of Beit Daniel, Israel's flagship

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

congregation, in Tel Aviv. In September 2017 Trajtenberg announced that he was resigning from the Knesset; he was replaced by Saleh Saad.Top Israeli economist quitting politics
The Jerusalem Post, 28 September 2017

References

Personal homepage
in the Tel Aviv University website
CV
from Trajtenberg's homepage
Trajtenberg to the protesters in Tel Aviv: No chance gov't will bury my report - The protests are too powerful
(in Hebrew),

Globes A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe of ...

, August 14, 2011

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trajtenberg, Manuel 1950 births Living people People from Córdoba, Argentina Argentine Jews Israeli Jews Argentine emigrants to Israel Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Social Sciences alumni Harvard University alumni Argentine economists Israeli economists Innovation economists Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent Zionist Union politicians Members of the 20th Knesset (2015–2019) Tel Aviv University faculty