Public lifeמרים פרץ

Miriam Peretz

Miriam Peretz is an Israeli educator and public speaker who lectures on Zionism and living with loss after two of her sons were killed in IDF service, and who received the Israel Prize in 2018.

born 1954Lectures on Zionism and bereavementIsrael Prize for lifetime achievement2021 presidential candidacy

Born: 10 April 1954, Casablanca
Occupation: educator, school superintendent
Education: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Miriam Peretz was born in 1954 in Casablanca

Miriam Peretz was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1954 to Yaakov Ohayon and Ito Vaknin. She studied at an Alliance school. As a child she moved with her family to Israel, where they settled in Beersheba.

She earned a bachelor's degree in literature and history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In the mid-1970s she married Eliezer Peretz and moved to Ofira in Sinai, where she worked as a teacher. After Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982, the family moved to Giv'on and then to Giv'at Ze'ev, where she ran the TALI school for about 22 years.

Her eldest son Uriel was killed in an ambush in South Lebanon in 1998, and her husband later died of an illness. Her son Eliraz was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2010. She then became a speaker on Zionism and loss to youth, Jewish communities and IDF soldiers.

A book about her life, Shirat Miriam, came out in 2011. She lit a torch at the 2014 Independence Day ceremony and received the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement in 2018. In 2021 she ran for President of Israel and lost to Isaac Herzog by 26 votes to 87.

She served as a superintendent in the Ministry of Education until she retired in 2022. In January 2024 she chaired a prize committee of the Zionist Council in Israel.