Manuel Trajtenberg

Manuel Trajtenberg was born in 1950 in Córdoba

Trajtenberg was born in Córdoba, Argentina. His father Julio was an accountant and a journalist in the Jewish press, and his mother Sara taught at the Jewish school. He grew up in hardship and moved to Israel at 16 through a program for young leaders.

He earned a bachelor's degree in economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1973 and a master's in economics and sociology there in 1976. In 1984 he received a doctorate from Harvard University for work on product innovation in CT scanners. He then joined the faculty of Tel Aviv University, where he headed the School of Economics in 2002 and 2003.

In 2006 he became the first head of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister's Office, and he resigned in 2009. From 2009 to 2014 he chaired the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education. In August 2011, during the tent protests, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named him to lead a committee on the cost of living.

He was elected to the Knesset in 2015 on the Zionist Union list and sat on the Finance Committee. He announced his resignation in September 2017 and was replaced by Saleh Saad. He headed the Institute for National Security Studies from 2021 and announced in January 2024 that he would step down.

In 2025 he was among the founders of Gadi Eisenkot's party. He is married to Nadine Baudot-Trajtenberg, and they have 3 daughters.