12 Facts About Efrat Tilma

Efrat Anne Tilma is an Israeli transgender activist and the first trans woman to volunteer in the Israel Police.

In 2019, Tilma became the first transgender woman to receive honorary citizenship of Tel Aviv in recognition of her public work.

Efrat Tilma was born in a kibbutz in Galilee, northern Israel; when she was a teenager, she and her family moved to Ramat Aviv, a neighbourhood of Tel Aviv.

In 1967, Efrat Tilma underwent gender reassignment surgery in Casablanca, Morocco, due to the procedure being illegal in Israel at the time.

Efrat Tilma subsequently had to undergo physical examinations by the Israeli Ministry of Interior in order to have her official paperwork changed to reflect her new gender identity.

This, along with the suicide of a close transgender friend of Efrat Tilma, led to her publicly coming out as a transgender woman.

Efrat Tilma has gone on to give lectures to the police about working with the transgender community, for which she was awarded a District Medal by the Tel Aviv District of the Israel Police in May 2017; at the ceremony, an official apology was given by the police for their treatment of transgender people.

That same year, Efrat Tilma was among a group of people who met then-President Reuben Rivlin at an event commemorating LGBT members of the Israel Police and the Israeli Defense Forces.

In 2016, Efrat Tilma served as a judge at the Miss Trans Israel pageant.

The winner, Thalin Abu Hanna, went on to play Efrat Tilma in Made He a Woman.

Efrat Tilma's photo featured her as Tamara Adrian, the first transgender woman elected to political office in Venezuela.

In December 2022, Efrat Tilma was named by the BBC as one of its 100 Women of that year for her activism for the transgender community in Israel.