April 29, 1976
Politician Tamar Zandberg of the left-wing Meretz party is born in Ramat Gan. She is first elected to the 19th Knesset in 2013, then wins a place in the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd Knessets.
Zandberg graduates from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a bachelor’s in psychology and economics and earns a master’s in social psychology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where she is a candidate for a doctorate in political science before turning to politics. She also has a legal degree from Tel Aviv University and has taught public policy at Sapir Academic College.
Zandberg works as an aide to Knesset member Ran Cohen from 2003 to 2008, the year she is elected to the Tel Aviv City Council. She heads the council’s Women’s Affairs Committee and serves on the Finance and Affordable Housing committees. She is a leader in Israel’s social protest movement in the summer of 2011 and helps create the movement’s housing and transportation platform.
An urban environmentalist and social democrat, she chairs the Social Home faction within women’s union Na’amat and holds leadership roles in the Histadrut labor federation and the Israel Bicycle Association. She participates in the Women of the Wall demonstrations at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Zandberg is one of six Meretz members elected to the Knesset in 2013 on a platform emphasizing human rights, social justice and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her committee assignments include Internal Affairs and Environment, Biometric Identification, and the Status of Women and Gender Equality. She co-founds and chairs the Sustainable Transport Lobby and the Urban Renewal Lobby.
Despite being seen as a rising star in Meretz, Zandberg is fifth on the party list and on the verge of losing her Knesset seat in the 2015 election when it appears the party wins only four seats, but the votes from soldiers, diplomats and other who don’t cast ballots on Election Day give Meretz a fifth seat.
She is elected the party leader in March 2018 but loses a leadership election to Nitzan Horowitz before the September 2019 Knesset election.