Naomi Tsur

Naomi Tsur was born in 1948 in Bristol

Naomi Tsur was born in Bristol on 8 September 1948 and grew up there. She moved to Israel in 1966. Her father, Joseph, was a professor of medicine at the Hebrew University and helped found the medical center at Ein Karem.

In 1973 she earned a bachelor's degree in archaeology and classics at the Hebrew University. In 1975 she went on to graduate studies in comparative linguistics there. She was a research fellow at the university from 1982 to 1995 and later worked as an assistant coin curator at the Rockefeller Museum.

From 1996 she headed the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel in Jerusalem for 12 years. There she formed Sustainable Jerusalem, a coalition of 60 groups, and worked for Gazelle Valley, the Railway Park and a wildflower reserve at Neve Yaakov. Her study of the city's land reserves contributed to the cancellation of the Safdie Plan for building in West Jerusalem.

In 2008 she became deputy mayor of Jerusalem, in charge of planning and the environment. She led recycling campaigns, worked on bike paths and the restoration of the Street of the Prophets, and pushed for public involvement in planning. In 2013 she headed the Ometz Lev party in the city council elections.

In 2009 she proposed a global network of pilgrimage cities, launched in Assisi in 2011 with her as its ambassador. She chairs the Sustainable Jerusalem lobby and the Israeli Forum for Urbanism. In 2022 she received the Bonei Zion Prize for lifetime achievement.