Simona Halperin

Simona Halperin was born in 1969 in Riga

Simona Halperin was born in 1969 in Riga, Latvia. She grew up in Leningrad and moved to Israel in 1976. She attended the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa.

In 1991 she completed a BA in economics and business administration at the University of Haifa through the academic reserve track. She served in the IDF as an economics and budget officer. In 2001 she earned an MA with honors in law and public administration from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

She joined the Foreign Ministry in 1993 and was deputy ambassador in Kazakhstan and South Korea from 1996 to 1999. From 2002 to 2006 she was an adviser on the European Parliament at Israel's mission to the European Union. From 2007 to 2010 she headed the ministry's department for international organizations and human rights.

From 2010 to 2015 she headed the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, Israel's unofficial mission in Taiwan. She was ambassador to Singapore and nonresident ambassador to East Timor from 2017 to 2019, and deputy director general for Eurasia and the Balkans from 2020 to 2022. She became ambassador to Russia in December 2023, and in July 2025 she was appointed deputy director general for Europe.

She is married to Tzafrir Halperin and has 5 children. She speaks Hebrew, English and Russian.