Nachman Shai

Nachman Shai was born in 1946 in Jerusalem

Shai was born Nakhman Shaykevich in Jerusalem on 28 November 1946. His mother Hava came to the Land of Israel from Poland, and his father Eliezer came from Russia. He attended the Hebrew Gymnasium Rehavia.

He earned a BA in history and political science and an MA in communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2009 he received a PhD in political science and communications from Bar-Ilan University. His thesis won the Tshetshik Prize for Security Studies.

After army service, he reported for Kol Israel and then for Israeli television on military affairs from 1972 to 1977. From 1979 he worked as a press official at Israel's UN delegation and its Washington embassy. He later commanded Army Radio and served as IDF spokesman.

He headed the Second Authority for Television and Radio, chaired the Israel Broadcasting Authority from 2000 to 2002, and led UJC Israel from 2002 to 2009. He entered the Knesset with Kadima in 2009 and moved to Labor before the 2013 elections. In 2021 he became Minister of Diaspora Affairs.

In 2013 he published a book on the media and the Second Intifada. In April 2024 he was appointed Dean of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College.