Meir Isaac Halevy

Meir Isaac Halevy was born in 1953 in Jerusalem

Halevi was born in Jerusalem in 1953 to Shoshana and Shlomo. His family came from Yemen and belongs to a line of rabbis in the Yemenite community. As a child he studied in Bnei Brak, and he later graduated from a college for social educators and from a local government program in political science at Bar-Ilan University.

He served as a fighter in the Armored Corps and fought in the Yom Kippur War. He finished his reserve service as a major.

He moved to Eilat with his wife Naomi and worked in informal education, running the youth department, the community center network and the management college. He joined the city council in 1993, was deputy mayor in charge of education in 1995 and 1996, and led the council opposition from 1998 to 2003.

He was elected mayor of Eilat in 2003 and won 3 more elections. He set up the City Without Violence program, which became a national program. He campaigned on issues such as tax benefits for residents, illegal stalls on the promenade and the entry of illegal migrants.

In December 2020 he joined New Hope and later entered the Knesset. He became Deputy Minister of Education in December 2021 and announced his retirement from politics in September 2022. He is married to Naomi and has 2 children.