Yoav Ben-Tzur

Yoav Ben-Tzur was born in 1958 in Kfar Saba

Yoav Ben-Tzur was born in Kfar Saba in 1958. His parents, Shalom and Mazal Sa'ada Ben-Tzur, came to Israel from Yemen in the late 1940s. He went to school in Netanya and studied at the Or Yisrael yeshiva in Petah Tikva.

He holds a master's degree in business and public administration from the University of Manchester. In the IDF he served as a soldier teacher and later as an officer in the Nahal Brigade.

He worked at the Or Hadash boarding school and later handled immigrant absorption in the north for the Ministry of Religious Affairs. He was deputy director general of the National Centre for the Development of Holy Places and then CEO of the government company HaMeshakem. In 2007 he was arrested on suspicion of bribery and fraud, and the case was closed for lack of evidence.

From 2007 to 2013 he headed the Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani school network. He entered the Knesset for Shas in June 2014 in place of Ariel Atias and was reelected several times. He served as deputy minister of the interior and as Minister of Labor, and resigned from the cabinet in July 2025.

He is married to Ofra and they have 7 children. The family lives in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem.