Yona Yahav

Yona Yahav was born in 1944 in Haifa

Yahav was born in 1944 in the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa, during the British Mandate period. He was the only child of Fred and Ethel Pieperberg, who came from Germany and Poland and had a religious background. He attended the Leo Baeck elementary school and the Hugim high school.

He served in the Military Police Corps and left the IDF as a lieutenant colonel. He earned a law degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and continued legal studies at the University of London. In 1969 he became chairman of the National Union of Israeli Students, and in 1970 he was named secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students.

In 1973 he became spokesman and aide to Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, and he later advised Transport Minister Gad Yaacobi. In 1978 he was elected to the Haifa city council, and from 1993 to 1995 he was deputy to mayor Amram Mitzna. He also worked for many years as a lawyer in Haifa.

He was a Labor member of the Knesset from 1996 to 1999 and chaired the banking subcommittee. He initiated laws including a cinema law and a rule on Hebrew songs on the radio. He lost his seat in 1999.

In 2003 he was elected mayor of Haifa on a joint Shinui and Greens list, and in 2006 he moved to Kadima. He lost the 2018 election to Einat Kalisch-Rotem. In 2024 he defeated David Etzioni and returned as mayor.