19 Facts About Rachel Azaria

Rachel Azaria, is a social activist and was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Kulanu.

Rachel Azaria was born in Jerusalem to Israel Azaria, a Tunisian-Jewish immigrant to Israel, and Sharon Friedman, an American Jewish immigrant to Israel at age 18.

Rachel Azaria grew up on moshav Beit Gamliel and was educated in the National Religious school system.

Rachel Azaria won the Tami Steinmetz Prize for her master's thesis on the self-perception of the founders of the first Israeli settlements in Samaria.

Rachel Azaria was a member of the debating team at the Hebrew University, participating in debates in the European and World Championships.

Rachel Azaria participated in the Shalom Hartman Institute's Young National Religious Leadership program from 2001 to 2003.

Rachel Azaria is married to Elyashiv, a Talmud teacher, and has four children, and lives in Jerusalem.

Rachel Azaria held US citizenship prior to her entering the Knesset, when she had to give it up as a condition of becoming an MK.

Rachel Azaria serves as a member of the Board of Green Course, Israel's largest volunteer environmental organization.

Rachel Azaria has been involved in issues related to Israel's national health basket, the Ashkelon coal plant, and the social impact of government economic plans.

Rachel Azaria was a founding member of the Yerushalmim political party in 2008 and served as its Chair until she was elected to the Knesset in 2015.

In 2008 Rachel Azaria was elected to the Jerusalem City Council.

Rachel Azaria has been engaged in the campaign to fight various types of exclusion, such as banning women from singing in public, separating women from men on city sidewalks, forcing women to sit at the back of the bus and the elimination of pictures of women in advertising.

In December 2015, the Knesset approved a preliminary reading of legislation Rachel Azaria sponsored to enable fathers to take more time off from work to care for their infants.

In May 2018, Rachel Azaria led a group of 10 female MKs who boycotted speeches by fellow MK Yehuda Glick after it was revealed that he had met with a Gett refuser on Knesset grounds.

The next day, Glick posted a picture with him and Rachel Azaria together noting that he had accepted her initiative to bury the hatchet.

In June 2018, Rachel Azaria announced that she would run for Mayor of Jerusalem in the 2018 Jerusalem mayoral election, though she had not yet secured the support of her former party at the time of her announcement.

Hassan-Nahoum said she was surprised when Rachel Azaria decided to run, and noted that she had a "real issue" with Rachel Azaria's candidacy splitting the city's pluralistic vote.

Rachel Azaria continued in this role until the government body officially passed a law dispersing itself in late December 2018.