Sara Netanyahu

Sara Netanyahu was born in 1958 in Kiryat Tiv'on

Sara Ben-Artzi was born in 1958 in Kiryat Tiv'on, near Haifa. Her father, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, was an educator, author and Bible scholar, and her mother was Chava. She has three brothers, Matanya, Hagai and Amatzia.

She attended Greenberg High School in Kiryat Tiv'on and wrote for the youth magazine Maariv LaNoar. She earned a B.A. in psychology at Tel Aviv University in 1984 and later a master's degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

She worked as an evaluator of gifted children, at a rehabilitation center of the Ministry of Labour, and as an El Al flight attendant. She married Benjamin Netanyahu in 1991, and they have two sons, Yair and Avner. As the prime minister's wife she chaired the Yad b'Yad aid group and the Tza'ad Kadima organization.

She began working as an educational psychologist for the Jerusalem Municipality. Her treatment of household staff led to several lawsuits, and in 2016 a labor court ruled for former employee Meni Naftali. In 2019 she signed a plea deal and was convicted of misusing state funds for meals, and the fraud charge was dropped.