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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mickey Gitzin (born 1980/1981)[1] is an Israeli peace activist and current executive director of the New Israel Fund, and director of its Tel Aviv branch.[2]
Gitzin was born to secular Russian-speaking Jewish parents who immigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union in the late 1970s.[1] They settled in the Dalet neighborhood of Beersheba, but Gitzin was born in Azor, where he was raised in a public housing apartment.[1][3] His parents and grandmother raised him and his sister with Soviet Russian influences and right-wing politics.[1]
At age 13, he began keeping kosher fully to fit in with his peers, and as a form of rebellion against his parents.[1][3]
Gitzin was active in his school's student government, becoming president of the student council.[1] He also became involved with right-wing politics; during the 1992 elections, he handed out Likud flyers.[1] However, he soon became involved with left-wing politics as part of a teenage rebellion against his parents.[1]
Gitzin graduated from Hebrew University, and attended University College London on a scholarship for a master's degree in public policy.[1][3]
Gitzin served in the Intelligence Directorate for his mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces, during which time he continued to develop his left-wing politics.[1] After his service was completed, he became a Jewish Agency shaliach to an American Jewish community in South Bend, Indiana,[3] where he was reassured that his secular beliefs were not in conflict with his Jewish worldview.[1]
Upon returning to Israel after working in the United States, Gitzin was hired to establish Be Free Israel, a coalition of left-wing organizations active in religious and state matters.[1][4]
In 2012, Gitzin protested draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Israelis.[5]
In 2015 and 2016, Gitzin was a member of the Tel Aviv Municipal Council.[6][7]
In late 2017, Gitzin became executive director of the New Israel Fund.[1]
In 2018, Gitzin's criticism of the Israeli government drew scrutiny on social media from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[8]
In January 2023, Gitzin called the proposed Israeli judicial reforms "an attack on all of democracy".[9]
While working in the United States, Gitzin began dating a Catholic American woman.[1] She returned with him to Israel, and they lived together for three years before separating, after which Gitzin came out as gay.[1] Gitzin has been with his current partner since the early 2010s, with the two living in Tel Aviv.[1][3]
As of 2016, Gitzin was a member of the Meretz Party.[7]
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