Public lifeענת הופמן

Anat Hoffman

Anat Hoffman is an Israeli women's rights activist, a founding member of Women of the Wall and the former executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center.

born 1954Founding Women of the WallLeading the Israel Religious Action CenterJerusalem City Council for MeretzIsraeli swimming champion

Born: 2 April 1954, Jerusalem
Occupation: executive director, women's rights activist, activist
Party: Meretz
Education: Hebrew University Secondary School, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, University of California, Los Angeles

Anat Hoffman was born in 1954 in Jerusalem

Anat Hoffman was born Anat Weiss in Jerusalem on April 2, 1954. Her father was born in the United States and worked in Israel as a Voice of America correspondent. Her mother, Varda Blechman, was the first child born at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel.

As a young woman she was a competitive swimmer and an Israeli champion. In 1972 she won 7 medals at the national championships, 4 of them gold, and at the 1973 Maccabiah she won 2 silver medals. She studied for a year at Bezalel, earned a B.A. in psychology at UCLA in 1980, and later did graduate study at Bar-Ilan University.

After returning to Israel she worked for religious pluralism and helped found Kol HaNeshama, a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem. She led a consumer campaign against Bezeq, which ended with the company issuing itemized bills. From 1989 to 2003 she sat on the Jerusalem City Council for Meretz.

In 1988 she was among the founders of Women of the Wall, which seeks the right of women to pray at the Western Wall in their own way. She was arrested several times for wearing a prayer shawl at the Wall. From 2002 to 2022 she headed the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform movement in Israel.

In 2013 Haaretz named her Person of the Year. In 2024 she was included in the BBC 100 Women list.