100 Notable alumni of Bar-Ilan University

Tsega Melaku is an Israeli author, journalist, community activist and politician currently serving as a member of the Knesset for Likud. She is the former director of Kol Yisrael's Reshet Aleph ("Network A") radio station. Melaku was disqualified from running in Israel's 2015 election with the Kulanu party for failing to complete her cooling-off period from government service, where it...

Gad Barzilai was an Israeli professor of law, political science and international studies, famous for his work on the politics of law, comparative law and politics, human rights, and communities. Barzilai published 18 books and 173 articles in major academic refereed journals and publishing houses. He had been a full professor of law, societies and justice, and international studies at...

Naomi Blumenthal is a former Israeli politician. First elected to the Knesset in 1992, her political career was ended by a conviction for corruption in 2006.

Aharon Razel is an Israeli musician. His music explores topics such as the Torah, Orthodox Judaism and living in Israel.

Sarah Blau is an Israeli author and playwright. She won the Levi Eshkol's Prize for Hebrew Literature in 2015 and the 2017 Bar-Ilan University Alumni Achievement Award.

Lizzie Doron is an Israeli author.

Alex Goldfarb is a former Israeli politician.

Nissan Slomiansky is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party between 1996 and 1999, and again from 2003-2009, and was re-elected again in 2013. He is a member of the Jewish Home party.

Amnon Cohen is an Israeli former politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Shas from 1999 until 2015.

Ohad Tal is an Israeli politician who serves as a member of Knesset for the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism. He heads the Public Enterprises Knesset Committee, and is a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Economics Committee, and Aliyah and Absorption Committee.

Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur is an Israeli Arab politician. A former leader of the United Arab List, he represented the party in the Knesset from 2006 to 2015.

Eti Hava Atiya is an Israeli politician who serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud since 2019.

Edna Arbel is an Israeli lawyer who was a justice on the Supreme Court of Israel from May 2004 to June 2014. She is a native of Jerusalem.

Evgeny Sova is an Israeli journalist, television presenter and politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu.

Robert Ilatov is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu.

Ruhama Avraham Balila is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 2003 and 2013. She also held the positions of Deputy minister of interior, Minister of Tourism and Minister without Portfolio responsible for liaison with the Knesset and was in charge of the Israel's 60th Independence Day celebrations.

Nurit Koren is an Israeli lawyer and politician. She served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 2015 and 2019.

Yaakov Katz is an American-born Israeli journalist, the author of four books on the Israel military, and the former Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post.

Zvi Bar is a retired Israeli military officer, police official, and politician. After serving in a variety of military and police command positions, Bar served as the fourth mayor of the Israeli city of Ramat Gan between 1989 and 2013.

Natan Slifkin, popularly known as the "Zoo Rabbi", is an Israeli Modern Orthodox rabbi, and the director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel. Slifkin is best known for his interests in zoology, Judaism's relationship to evolution, Jewish and biblical history, and his writing on these topics.

Assaf Hefetz was commissioner of the Israeli Police.

Alexander Lubotzky is an Israeli mathematician and former politician who is currently a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and an adjunct professor at Yale University. He served as a member of the Knesset for The Third Way party between 1996 and 1999. In 2018 he won the Israel Prize for his accomplishments in mathematics and computer science, which...

Hillel Fuld is an American Israeli technology business advisor, blogger, and vlogger. Fuld's work focuses on the Israeli high tech industry, guidance for startup companies, and marketing tips for growing a business or personal brands.

Eli Geva is an Israeli brigade commander, who during the Siege of Beirut (in the early stage of the 1982 Lebanon War), refused to lead his forces into the city for moral reasons which he termed "endangerment of both soldiers and civilians in urban warfare". It was the first time that a senior Israeli officer resigned in protest during one...

Geulah Aliza Bloch is an Israeli teacher and politician. In 2018, she became the first female mayor of Beit Shemesh, and in 2019 she was named by The Jerusalem Post as one of the world's 50 most influential Jews.

Nira Shpak is an Israeli soldier, civil servant and politician. She was a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid from 2021 to 2022.

Yuval Dor is an Israeli singer-songwriter, composer and voice actor.

Aliza Lavie is an Israeli public figure, author, and social entrepreneur. She served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid between 2013 and 2019, and is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Communication at Bar-Ilan University and chairperson of the Israel Film Council. Her work focuses on gender issues and multiculturalism in Judaism and Israeli society.

Ziv Cojocaru is an Israeli composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist. He serves as Associate Professor and Head of the Music Division in the Department of the Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is also Composer-in-Residence with the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion. Cojocaru is the recipient of the ACUM Prize and the Prime Minister's Award for Composers (2015).

Itzhak Ilan or Yitzhak Ilan, served in the Israel Security Agency (a.k.a. ISA, Shin-Bet, Shabak) during the years 1982–2012, and served during his last position as the Deputy Director of the ISA during the years 2010–2011.

Moshe Karadi is a former Israeli police officer and general commissioner of the Israel Police between 2004 and May 1, 2007.

Yehuda Weinstein is an Israeli lawyer and former Attorney General of Israel, having replaced the previous attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, on 1 February 2010.

Michal Rozin is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Meretz from 2013 to 2019 and then again from 2021 until 2022.

Yossi Dagan is an Israeli activist and politician who has been the head of the Shomron Regional Council since August 2015.

Aharon Abuhatzira was an Israeli politician. After serving as mayor of Ramla, he held several ministerial portfolios in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He resigned from the cabinet after being convicted of larceny, breach of trust and fraud.

Zevulun Hammer was an Israeli politician, minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

Anat Berko is an Israeli criminologist and politician. An expert in the fields of counter-terrorism, she served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 2015 and 2019.

Nir Orbach is an Israeli politician. He was a member of the Knesset for the Yamina party from 2021 to 2022.

Herzl Bodinger was a general in the Israel Defense Forces who served as twelfth Commander of the Israeli Air Force between 1992 and 1996. He previously served several other command roles in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), and also participated in aerial operations over Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, shooting down two fighter jets.

Ruth Wasserman Lande is an Israeli politician, diplomat and activist. She was a member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party from 2021 until 2022 and also was an MK for the party in two short spells in early 2021.

Pinchas Lapide was a Jewish theologian, historian, and diplomat.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is an Israeli attorney, human rights activist, and the founder of Shurat HaDin – Israeli Law Center. As the president of the Shurat HaDin, she has represented hundreds of terror victims in legal actions against terror organizations and their supporters. Darshan-Leitner initiated a legal campaign to deprive terrorists of social media resources such as Facebook and Twitter. Darshan-Leitner...

Giora Romm was an Israeli military officer who served as deputy commander of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), Israel's military attaché in the United States and as director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel. Romm was the Israeli Air Force's first fighter jet ace, scoring five victories during the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1969, during the War of Attrition,...

Revital Swid is an Israeli criminal defense lawyer and politician. She served as a member of Knesset for the Zionist Union and serves as a member of the Labor Party.

Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh is an Israeli Druze politician and journalist. She became the first Druze woman to anchor a Hebrew-language news program on Israeli television in 2017. In April 2019, she was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Blue and White alliance, making history as the first Druze woman to become a Member of the Knesset. She was...

Katrin "Keti" Shitrit-Peretz is an Israeli politician currently serving as a member of the Knesset for Likud. She previously held the role from 2019 to 2022.

Haim Bibas is the third mayor of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, Israel, in office since 2008. Bibas has lived there with his wife and three children since 1997. He is the head of The Federation of Local Authorities in Israel since 2014.

Michal Miriam Waldiger is an Israeli lawyer and politician. Since 2021, she is a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism.

Meir Ben-Shabbat was Israel's National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff for National Security. He was former head of the Southern Region in the General Security Service. In July 2021, Ben Shabbat announced that he would step down from the National Security Adviser post by late August.

Shai Moshe Piron is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, educator, and politician. A religious Zionist, he served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid between 2013 and 2015, and as Minister of Education between 2013 and 2014.

Yafit Greenberg, commonly known as G. Yafit (Hebrew: ג. יפית, Gimmel Yafit), was an Israeli businesswoman specialising in advertising.

Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky is an Israeli army general and businessman who was CEO of the Israeli subsidiary of Better Place. Most recently, he was Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. He was previously head of the Israel Defense Forces's Central Command, whose area of responsibility includes the West Bank. As Deputy Chief of the...

Binyamin Tzvi Lau, (Hebrew: בנימין צבי (בני) לאו; born 20 October 1961) is an Israeli rabbi, community leader, activist, author, and public speaker who lives in Jerusalem. He is the head of 929: Tanach B'yachad and headed the Kehillat Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem for 18 years. He is also the head of the "Human Rights and Judaism in Action Project"...

Hamad Amar is an Israeli Druze politician who currently serves as a member of Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu since 2022, previously serving from 2009 to 2019, and again from 2019 to 2021. Amar also served as a Minister in the Finance Ministry from 2021 to 2022.

Aluf Ehud "Udi" Adam is a former general in the Israel Defense Forces and the former head of the Israeli Northern Command.

Meir Sheetrit is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset in two spells for Likud between 1981 and 1988, and again from 1992 until 2005, when he joined Kadima. He remained a Knesset member for Kadima until joining Hatnuah in 2012, for whom he served until 2015. He also held several ministerial posts, including being Minister...

Dani Dayan is an Argentine-born Israeli diplomat and entrepreneur. He is chairman of Yad Vashem.

Yoav "Poli" Mordechai is a retired major general in the Israel Defense Forces.

Norman Lebrecht is a British gossip columnist best known as the owner of the classical music blog Slipped Disc. His writings have been accused of sensationalism and criticized for their inaccuracies and tendency to gossip, while others have praised them as entertaining. Unlike other writers on music, Lebrecht rarely reviews concerts or recordings, preferring to report on the people and...

Michal Shir Segman is an Israeli politician. She is currently a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, having previously served as an MK for New Hope from 2021 to 2022 and for Likud between 2019 and 2020.

Yuval Diskin is a former director of the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, serving as its 13th director from 2005 to 2011. He was appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and later served under subsequent Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Giora Eiland is a retired Major General of the Israel Defense Forces and a former head of the Israeli National Security Council. After his retirement from the public sector, he was a senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

Nachman Shai is an Israeli journalist and politician who served as Minister of Diaspora Affairs. He previously served as a member of the Knesset and its Deputy Speaker, as well as the IDF spokesman. In April 2024 he was appointed Dean of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem.

Miriam Feirberg-Ikar was an Israeli politician. At the time of her death, she was serving as the mayor of Netanya, a city in the Central District of Israel. Feirberg was the first elected female mayor in Netanya and is one of the few women who have served as mayors of Israeli cities.

Zehava Galon, is an Israeli politician, the president of the research institute ZULAT for Equality and Human Rights and former leader of Meretz.

Yaron Zelekha is an Israeli economist and political figure who heads the New Economic Party.

Aluf Eitan Ben Eliyahu is a retired major general in the Israel Defense Forces and was commander of the Israeli Air Force (IAF).

Israel Ziv is an Israeli retired general who held several prominent posts including the head of the Israel Defense Force's Operations Directorate. During the Gaza war, Ziv emerged as a symbol of individual resistance and initiative, engaging directly in conflict zones, organizing military efforts, and spearheading civilian defense initiatives amidst a Hamas incursion.

Edy Cohen is an Israeli of Lebanese Jewish origin, researcher, journalist and specialist in the Arab–Israeli conflict. He is a commentator on Arab social media.

Yaniv Asor is a member of Israel Defense Forces with the rank of Aluf, serving as chief of the IDF Southern Command. Previously he served as head of the Personnel Directorate, head of the Operations Branch in the Operations Directorate, commander of the Bashan Division, commander of the Golani Brigade, deputy commander of the Ga'ash Formation, and commander of the...

Elazar Stern is an Israeli politician and military general. He was a major general (res.) in the Israel Defense Forces, serving as Head of the Manpower Directorate, commander of the IDF Officers Training School, and Chief Education Officer, as well as a combat soldier and commander in the Paratroopers Brigade. He has served as a Member of Knesset for eight...

Omer Yankelevich is an Israeli attorney, educator, social activist, and politician. She was the Minister of Diaspora Affairs and was a Member of the Knesset for the Blue and White from 2019 to 2021. She is a co-founder of the "Just Begun Foundation", which sponsors social initiatives to help integrate peripheral and marginalized populations in Israel, with an emphasis on...

Matan Kahana is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the National Unity Party, New Right and Yamina. He also served as Minister of Religious Services. He was an officer in the IDF with the rank of colonel, who served as a combat soldier in Sayeret Matkal, and as a fighter pilot in the Israeli...

Amichai "Ami" Ayalon is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. He was previously head of the Shin Bet, Israel's security service, and commander-in-chief of the Navy. He came in second to Ehud Barak in a Labor party leadership election in June 2007 and was appointed a Minister without Portfolio in September 2007....

Roi Yosef Levy was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with the rank of colonel who served in his last position as commander of the Multidimensional Unit. He had previously served as commander of the Fire Training Center in Melah, commander of the Bar'am Brigade, commander of the Unit 621 – 'Egoz', commander of the Hadar Battalion and...

Michael Ben-Ari is an Israeli politician, and former member of the Knesset. During the 18th Knesset, Ben Ari was a member of the National Union party, until it broke up as elections for the 19th Knesset approached and he co-established the Otzma LeYisrael party. He failed to be re-elected to the 19th Knesset. He was banned by the courts from...

Boaz Bismuth is a member of the Israeli Knesset, the head of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, a journalist and columnist who served as editor-in-chief of Israel Hayom between April 2017 and January 2022, and Israeli Ambassador to Mauritania between 2004 and 2008.

Moshe Klughaft is an Israeli campaign manager, strategic advisor, songwriter and filmmaker. He has managed campaigns for global leaders and was named by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.

Revital "Tally" Gotliv is an Israeli lawyer and politician. She is currently a member of the 25th Knesset for the Likud.

Ofer Winter is a retired Israel Defense Forces Brigadier General who has served in the reserves since 2024. He served as the commander of 98th Paratroopers Division, the military secretary to the Israeli Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff of Central Command, the commander of the Givati Brigade, the commander of the Northern Brigade in the Gaza Strip, the...

David "Dudi" Amsalem, is an Israeli politician. He currently serves as the Regional Cooperation Minister of Israel. He previously held the posts of Minister of Communications, the Minister for Cyber and National Digital Matters and as the Government-Knesset Liaison and was a member of the Knesset for Likud.

Moshe Lion, or Moshe Leon, is an Israeli politician who is currently the Mayor of Jerusalem. He previously served as a member of the Jerusalem City Council, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Chairman of the Israel Railways, and head of the Jerusalem Development Authority.

Gila Gamliel-Demri is an Israeli politician who currently serves as Minister of Science and Technology and as a member of the Knesset for Likud. She also previously served as Minister for Social Equality, Minister of Environmental Protection and Minister of Intelligence.

Yosef "Yossi" Meir Cohen is an Israeli intelligence officer.

Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni is an Israeli politician, diplomat and lawyer.

Shaul Mofaz is a retired Israeli military officer and politician. He joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1966 and served in the Paratroopers Brigade. He fought in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, and Operation Entebbe with the paratroopers and Sayeret Matkal, an elite special forces unit. In 1998 he became the IDF's sixteenth Chief of staff,...

Aharon Haliva is a former Israeli Major general (Aluf) who commanded the Israel Defense Forces' Military Intelligence Directorate. He previously served as the head of the Operations Directorate, the head of the Technological and Logistics Directorate, the head of the operations division in the operations directorate, the commander of the 98th Paratroopers Division, the commander of the paratroopers brigade, and...

Daniella Weiss is an Israeli far-right Orthodox Zionist, founder of Nachala, an Israeli settler organization, and a former mayor of Kedumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. She was first elected mayor of Kedumim in September 1996, and was re-elected for a second term in November 2001 through 2007. Weiss' organization, Nachala, has been involved in at least one...

Makhlouf "Miki" Zohar is an Israeli politician. He currently serves as the Minister of Culture and Sports in the thirty-seventh government. Zohar previously served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and chairman of Global Likud.

Moshe Ya'akov Vardi MAE ForMemRS is an Israeli theoretical computer scientist. He is the Karen Ostrum George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University, United States. and a faculty advisor for the Ken Kennedy Institute. His interests focus on applications of logic to computer science, including database theory, finite model theory, knowledge of multi-agent systems, computer-aided verification and...

Raviv Drucker is an Israeli journalist, political commentator and investigative reporter.

Avishai Raviv is a former agent of Israel's Shin Bet (Shabak), Israel's domestic intelligence service, whose mission was to monitor the activities of right-wing extremists. His code name was 'Champagne' (Hebrew: שמפניה, romanized: Shampaniyah).

Gal Hirsch is an Israeli former military commander and author. As Brigadier General, he commanded the 91st Division of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 2006 Lebanon War. Hirsch coordinated the negotiations for the captives and missing of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Avichai Mandelblit is an Israeli jurist who served as the Attorney General of Israel from 2016 to 2022. Mandelblit had a long career in the Israel Defense Forces legal system, eventually serving as the Chief Military Advocate General between 2004 and 2011. In April 2013, he was appointed Cabinet Secretary. In February 2016, he was appointed Attorney General. In November...

Gilad Menashe Erdan is an Israeli politician and diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations from 2020 through 2024.

Tzipura "Tzipi" Hotovely is an Israeli diplomat and former politician who was the Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom between 2020 and 2025. She previously served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Minister of Settlement Affairs, and as a member of the Knesset for the Likud party.

Abraham Moshe "Avi" Dichter is an Israeli politician currently serving as the Minister of Agriculture and Food Development. A former Minister of Internal Security and Shin Bet director, he resigned from the Knesset and left Kadima in August 2012 in order to become Minister of Home Front Defense, a position he vacated in March 2013.

Faina Kirschenbaum is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu between 2009 and 2015. In July 2021, she was sentenced to ten years in prison following a conviction for bribery.

Anastassia Yehudith Michaeli is an Israeli journalist, television presenter, and politician. She served as a member of Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu between 2009 and 2013. During her Knesset term she received media attention for attempting to physically disturb an Arab representative's speech and for comments she made on the psychology of gays and lesbians. While in the Knesset she was...