Eitan Ginzburg ( he, אֵיתָן גִּינְזְבּוּרְג, born 25 January 1977) is an Israeli politician. The first openly gay mayor in Israel when he became mayor of

Ra'anana Ra'anana ( he, רַעֲנָנָּה, lit. "Fresh") is a city in the southern Sharon Plain of the Central District of Israel. It was founded in 1922 as an American-Jewish settlement, 1 km south of the village of Tabsur, where an important ...

in 2018, he was elected to the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

the following year and was formerly Minister of Communications.

Biography

Ginzburg was born in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

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 second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. When he was eighteen months old, his family

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to Israel, initially settling in kibbutz

Or HaNer Or HaNer ( he, אוֹר הַנֵּר, ''lit.'' Light of the Candle) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located near Sderot, it fall under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In it had a population of . Etymology Its name is taken f ...

, before moving to Ra'anana when he was aged ten. After being educated at Ostrovsky high school, he carried out his national service in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

in the Military Police Corps, reaching the rank of major by the time of his discharge in 1999. Ginzburg went on to earn an LLB and a BA in government at the

Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya Reichman University ( he, אוניברסיטת רייכמן) is Israel's only private university, located in Herzliya, Tel Aviv District. It was founded in 1994 as the IDC Herzliya private college, before being rebranded in 2021. It receives no ...

and an MA in political science at

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 ...

. In the early 2000s he was amongst the founders of the Yisrael Aheret party, and he was second on its list for the 2003 Knesset elections, but the party failed to win a seat. However, in the

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

later in the year, he became the youngest-ever person elected to Ra'anana city council when he was elected on the Independent List for Ra'anana headed by

Ze'ev Bielski Ze'ev Bielski ( he, זאב בילסקי, born 13 March 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Kadima between 2009 and 2013. He previously chaired the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization and worked as ...

. Between 2007 and 2008 he was an advisor to Deputy Minister of Defence

Matan Vilnai Matan Vilnai ( he, מַתָּן וִילְנָאִי; born 20 May 1944) is an Israeli politician and a former major general in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). A former Knesset member and government minister, he was appointed ambassador to Chin ...

.Eitan Ginzburg
Ra'anana City Council In the 2008 municipal elections he headed the Labor Party list in the city, and was re-elected for another term. From 2010 he served as deputy and acting mayor. He switched back to Bielski's list for the 2013 elections. When Bielski resigned as mayor in March 2018, Ginzburg was elected by city councillors to serve as his replacement until the October 2018 elections, becoming the country's first openly gay mayor.Israel 2019 elections: Meet the LBGTQ candidates
A Wider Bridge However, the October elections saw him lose to Haim Broide in the second round with 41.74% of the vote. In 2019 Ginzburg joined the new

Israel Resilience Party The Israel Resilience Party ( he, חוסן לישראל, Hosen LeYisrael, Resilience for Israel), is a liberal political party in Israel founded in December 2018 by Benny Gantz, former Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. The ...

. After the party became part of the Blue and White alliance, he was given the thirty-second slot on the joint list, and was subsequently elected to the Knesset as the alliance won 35 seats. In May 2021 he was appointed Minister of Communications.הממשלה אישרה מינויי שרים: איתן גינזבורג במשרד התקשורת, שטייניץ שר המים
Haaretz

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ginzburg, Eitan 1977 births Living people People from La Plata Argentine emigrants to Israel Argentine Jews Blue and White (political alliance) politicians Deputy Speakers of the Knesset Reichman University alumni Israel Resilience Party politicians Israeli Jews Israeli Labor Party politicians Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent Jewish Israeli politicians LGBT mayors LGBT members of the Knesset Mayors of Ra'anana Members of the 21st Knesset (2019) Members of the 22nd Knesset (2019–2020) Members of the 23rd Knesset (2020–2021) Members of the 24th Knesset (2021–2022) Ministers of Communications of Israel Tel Aviv University alumni LGBT Jews 21st-century LGBT people