Eitan Ginzburg

Eitan Ginzburg (Hebrew: איתן גינזבורג‎, born 25 January 1977) is an Israeli politician. In 2018 he became mayor of Ra'anana, the first openly gay person to hold a mayoralty in the country. In 2019 he was elected to the Knesset for the Blue and White alliance.

Eitan Ginzburg
Date of birth (1977-01-25) 25 January 1977
Place of birthArgentina
Knessets21, 22, 23
Faction represented in Knesset
2019–Blue and White

Biography

Ginzburg was born in Argentina. When he was eighteen months old, his family emigrated to Israel, initially settling in kibbutz Or HaNer, 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 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 and an MA in political science at Tel Aviv University.[1] In the early 2000s he was amongst the founders of the Yisrael Aheret party,[1] 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 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. Between 2007 and 2008 he was an advisor to Deputy Minister of Defence Matan Vilnai.[1]

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.[2] 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. After the party became part of the Blue and White alliance, he was given the thirty-second slot on the joint list,[3] and was subsequently elected to the Knesset as the alliance won 35 seats.

References
  1. Eitan Ginzburg Ra'anana City Council
  2. Israel 2019 elections: Meet the LBGTQ candidates A Wider Bridge
  3. 2019 Blue and White list CEC
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