Iris Stern Levi

Iris Stern Levi was born in 1953 in Jaffa

Iris Stern Levi was born in Jaffa in 1953. Her father, George Stern, was born in Austria and was sent to Glasgow on the Kindertransport, and her mother, Dvora Nahmias, was born in Israel. The family moved to Australia when she was young, and in 1970 she was sent back to live with relatives in Tel Aviv.

She studied art and completed the group guidance program at Tel Aviv University. In the 1990s she lived in Amsterdam for 3 years. There she learned about the harm done to women in the Bosnian War, and this led her into activism.

In 1997 she began volunteering at the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center. For 16 years she coordinated its network of about 200 volunteers. She also co-founded the Testimony Tribunal of Women Victims of Sexual Assault, a project that raises awareness without official power.

In 2011 she left the center and founded Turning the Tables with Lilach Tzur, offering vocational training and support to women leaving addiction and prostitution. With Tal Hamoui she later founded Her Academy in Tel Aviv, which opened a Haifa branch in 2024. She sits on the board of Coalition of Women for Peace and received the Rappaport Prize in 2021.

She has 2 adult children with cultural historian Dror K. Levi. Since 2004 she has lived with her female partner.