Yehiel Bar

Yehiel Bar was born in 1975 in Safed

Bar was born in Safed in 1975, the eldest of five children. His father was born in Morocco and his mother was of Ashkenazi background. His father served as deputy mayor of Safed and secretary of the Workers' Council for the Labor Party.

He was active in the Working and Studying Youth and in Labor Youth. He studied at Bezek College in Jerusalem and served in the IDF as an Adjutant Corps officer. He later earned a BA in political science and international relations and an MA in international relations at the Hebrew University.

He led Labor student groups and worked as an adviser to ministers Dalia Itzik and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. In 2008 he was elected to the Jerusalem City Council on Nir Barkat's list and held the tourism and foreign relations portfolios. In 2010 he became Secretary General of the Labor Party, a post he held until early 2017.

Bar was elected to the 19th Knesset in January 2013 and again to the 20th Knesset on the Zionist Union list. He served as Deputy Speaker and on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and founded a caucus for resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict in 2013. In January 2019 he announced his retirement from political life.

He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and has three children.