Politicsצביה גרינפילד

Tzvia Greenfeld

Tzvia Greenfield is an Israeli politician and activist who served as a Meretz member of the Knesset from 2008 to 2009, the first Haredi woman to sit in the Knesset.

born 1945First Haredi woman in the KnessetFounding the Mifneh InstituteCriticism of Haredi society

Occupation: politician, human rights defender, activist
Party: Meretz
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Tzvia Greenfeld was born in 1945 in Jerusalem

Greenfield was born in Jerusalem in 1945 and grew up in a Haredi family. She studied at Bais Yaakov schools.

She studied philosophy and history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned a master's degree. In 2004 she received a doctorate in political philosophy from the same university. She married an American pediatrician, lived for some years in the United States, and later settled in Har Nof in Jerusalem, where they raised 5 children.

She became politically active in the 1990s. In 1993 she founded the Mifneh Institute to promote peace, tolerance and democracy in religious society. She helped found Orthodox Women for the Sanctity of Life, served on the board of B'Tselem and signed the Geneva Initiative.

In 2001 she published a book criticizing the positions of the religious and Haredi public. She was placed sixth on the Meretz list for the 17th Knesset and entered the Knesset on 4 November 2008 after Yossi Beilin resigned. She lost her seat in the 2009 elections.

She supports a two-state solution and describes herself as a social democrat. She published further books in 2011 and 2017. Some Haredi voices reject her description of herself as Haredi.