Lesley Sachs

Lesley Sachs was born in 1958 in Johannesburg

Sachs was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 25 August 1958. She grew up in Haifa from age 5. After her military service, she was among the first volunteers at the Haifa Rape Crisis Center and helped found the Isha L'isha Haifa Feminist Center.

She studied at Haifa University and then moved to Jerusalem, where she studied hotel management. She worked in that field for several years.

From 1989 to 1997 she worked at Israel Women's Network, first as its first spokesperson and later as CEO. From 1997 to 2003 she was CEO of the Israel Religious Action Center. In 2003 she became Vice President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and Director of Beit Shmuel Mercaz Shimshon.

In 2008 she founded Project Kesher Israel and became executive director of Women of the Wall. She was arrested 4 times for wearing a tallit at the Western Wall. At her fourth arrest, Judge Moshe Sobel ruled that the group's prayer there was legal.

Sachs is also a painter of social commentary, working in oil, acrylic and mixed media. Her figurative works show human situations of inequality and social injustice, and she held solo exhibitions in 2020.