Haya Shalom

Haya Shalom was born in 1944 in Jerusalem

Haya Shalom was born on December 4, 1944, in Jerusalem. She is of Sephardic origin. She earned a bachelor's degree in history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

She came out as a lesbian in 1979. She founded a lesbian feminist community in 1987 and co-founded the Coalition of Women for Just Peace in 1988. She has been active in Women in Black and served on the boards of Kol Haisha and Bat Shalom in the 1990s.

From 1990 to 2003 she worked as a parliamentary aide to Knesset member Tamar Gozansky. During those years she proposed a Knesset committee on women's rights and marking the international day against violence against women. She also initiated the Women Poets' Festival in 1996.

She was included among the 1000 women nominated together for the Nobel Peace Prize. She received the community prize of the gay and lesbian community in 2000. In 2012 she founded a group for lesbian and queer women aged 45+ at the Jerusalem Open House.

In 2015 she was named among 40 influential figures in the history of the LGBT community. She also worked in massage and reflexology for about 20 years. She lives in Jerusalem.