Lia Shemtov

Lia Shemtov was born in 1958 in Chernivtsi

Lia Shemtov was born on 25 May 1958 in Chernivtsi, in the Ukrainian SSR. She studied electronics engineering at Chernivtsi University. She left her studies and moved to Israel in 1980, settling with her parents in Nazareth Illit, now Nof HaGalil.

From 1990 to 2003 she worked for Amidar. In the mid-1990s she joined the Likud, and in 1998 she was elected to the Nazareth Illit City Council. During that term she joined Avigdor Lieberman and was among the founders of Yisrael Beiteinu, and from 2003 she served as deputy mayor.

She entered the Knesset in 2006 on the Yisrael Beiteinu list and chaired the committee on the status of women. She was reelected in 2009 and became a deputy speaker of the Knesset in June 2012. She chaired several lobbies, including groups for the Galilee and the Negev and for Yiddish culture.

In 2013 she ran for mayor of Nazareth Illit, did not win, and was elected to the city council, where she served until 2018. In 2019 she began heading the Jewish Agency delegation to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. She is married to Nahum and has 2 children.