Business and technologyיעקב קדמי

Yakov Kedmi

Yakov Kedmi is an Israeli diplomat and activist for Soviet Jewish immigration who headed the Nativ liaison bureau from 1992 to 1999.

born 1947Heading Nativ from 1992 to 1999Struggle for Soviet Jewish immigrationRenouncing Soviet citizenshipGeopolitical commentary on Russian television

Born: 5 March 1947, Moscow
Occupation: businessperson, diplomat, writer
Education: Tel Aviv University, Israeli College for National Security
Wars: Yom Kippur War

Yakov Kedmi was born in 1947 in Moscow

Kedmi was born Yakov Kazakov in Moscow on March 5, 1947, to Iosif and Sofia Kazakov. He studied at the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. In 1967 he entered the Israeli embassy in Moscow and asked for help to immigrate, and Soviet authorities refused him.

He renounced his Soviet citizenship in a request to the Soviet parliament. In December 1968 his letter appeared in The Washington Post, passed on by Nehemiah Levanon. In February 1969 he was allowed to leave, and he came to Israel.

In Israel he studied at the Technion and Tel Aviv University and pushed for open public struggle for Soviet Jewish immigration. In 1970 he held a 9 day hunger strike in front of the United Nations building in New York. He then served as an armor officer in the IDF.

He was a member of Herut and joined Nativ in 1978. From 1988 to 1990 he worked in the Israeli consular group at the Dutch Embassy in Moscow. Yitzhak Shamir appointed him head of Nativ in 1992, and he resigned in 1999.

Later he became a lecturer on geopolitics and, from 2014, a regular guest on Russian television. He has written books in Russian. He is married and has 3 children.