Adina Bar-Shalom

Adina Bar-Shalom was born in 1945 in Jerusalem

Adina Bar-Shalom was born in Jerusalem in 1945. She is the eldest daughter of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Margalit Yosef. From age 3 to 6 she lived in Cairo, where her father served as deputy chief rabbi.

She studied in the Bais Yaakov school network and later learned tailoring at a Bais Yaakov vocational school. At 18 she married Rabbi Ezra Bar-Shalom, taught sewing and ran a salon for brides. In 1975 she began studying fashion design at Shenkar College, after her husband and father opposed her plan to study psychology.

In 2001, with her father's approval, she founded the Haredi College of Jerusalem, the first higher education institution in the city for the Haredi sector. Studies were gender segregated and degrees came from Israeli universities. In 2016 the Council for Higher Education decided to close the college, and its activity ended in 2017.

She was active in the Tafnit movement and founded a forum for dialogue between religious and secular Jews. In 2014 she was named to head a women's council for Shas. In 2018 she founded the Ahi Yisraeli party for the 2019 elections, but it withdrew and she backed Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu.

She has spoken publicly for women's education and work and against the exclusion of women in public spaces. She lives in Tel Aviv with her husband, a rabbinical court judge. The couple has 3 children.