Aliza Lavie is an Israeli academic and politician. She currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, and is a senior lecturer at the School of Communication at Bar-Ilan University. She is a well-known author, publicist, media personality, and social activist. She was Executive Director of the Public Council for Youth Exchange between 1990 and 1996, and founder and chair of Matan (Beit Midrash) Netanya and A Voice (Religious Women’s Forum), an organisation which served as a founder of the Committee of Management and sexual harassment. Lavie is also a member of the Kolech forum for religious women.
Our Voice of the Fortnight is from the Times of Israel's 'Wartime Diaries' podcast. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai – an Assistant Professor at Columbia University – became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.