Naftali Bennett

Bennett's paternal great-great-great-grandfather Julius Salomonson was from Łobżenica, Poland, and arrived in San Francisco in 1851 during the California Gold Rush.

His mother's ancestors lived in Russia and Poland, and her parents immigrated to the United States prior to World War II.

They later moved to Israel, joining their daughter's family there, and settled on Vitkin Street in Haifa, close to where Bennett and his brothers grew up.

Some of his mother's family members who remained in Poland were murdered in the Holocaust.

Bennett's parents were raised in non-Orthodox Jewish homes and were progressive activists during the 1960s.

His father was arrested while taking part in an anti-racism sit-in protest in 1964.

They later began to observe Modern Orthodox Judaism and embraced right-wing Israeli politics.

He is the youngest of three sons born to Jim and Myrna (née Lefko) Bennett, American-Jewish immigrants who moved to Israel from San Francisco in July 1967.

Both his parents were from Ashkenazi Jewish backgrounds.

His father's ancestors were from Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

After moving to Israel in 1967, they volunteered for a few months at kibbutz Dafna, where they studied the Hebrew language, then settled in the Ahuza neighborhood of Haifa.

Jim Bennett found a job in the Technion, working for its fundraising team, and became a successful real estate broker turned real estate entrepreneur.

Myrna Bennett was the deputy director general of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel's northern region.

Naftali Bennett (נַפְתָּלִי בֶּנֶט, ; born 25 March 1972) is an Israeli politician who was the 13th prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the 3rd Alternate Prime Minister of Israel from 1 July to 8 November 2022.

Bennett was born in Haifa, Israel, on 25 March 1972.

In the summer of 1973, when Bennett was one year old, the family returned to San Francisco at the urging of his mother.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, Jim Bennett returned to Israel to fight in the Israel Defense Forces, serving in an artillery unit on the Golan Heights front.

Following the war, the rest of the family returned to Israel at his request as he was held in reserve duty for months after the war.

In 1999, he co-founded and co-owned the US company Cyota.

The company was sold in 2005 for $145 million.

Bennett entered politics in 2006, as Chief of Staff for Benjamin Netanyahu until 2008.

From 2010 to 2012, he was the director of the Yesha Council.

In 2011, together with Ayelet Shaked, he co-founded the My Israel extra-parliamentary movement.

In 2012, Bennett was elected as the party leader of The Jewish Home.

He also was CEO of Soluto, an Israeli cloud computing service, sold in 2013 for a reported $100–130 million.

In the 2013 Knesset election, the first contested by The Jewish Home under Bennett's leadership, the party won 12 seats out of 120.

He served under Prime Minister Netanyahu as Minister of Economy and Religious Services from 2013 to 2015, before being appointed as Minister of Education in 2015.

Bennett was the leader of the New Right party from 2018 to 2022, having previously led The Jewish Home party between 2012 and 2018.

Born and raised in Haifa, the son of immigrants from the United States, Bennett was in the Sayeret Matkal and Maglan special forces units of the Israel Defense Forces, commanding many combat operations, and subsequently became a software entrepreneur.

In December 2018, Bennett defected from The Jewish Home to form the New Right, a member of the Yamina alliance.

After he lost his Knesset seat in the April 2019 Knesset election, he was dismissed by Netanyahu as Education Minister in June 2019.

He regained his seat in the September 2019 Knesset election and was appointed Minister of Defense, before leaving the position the following year.

In 2020, Bennett succeeded Shaked to become the leader of the Yamina alliance.

On 2 June 2021, Bennett agreed to a rotation government with Yair Lapid, whereby Bennett would serve as Israel's prime minister until 2023, after which Lapid would assume the role until 2025.

Bennett was sworn in on 13 June 2021.

On 20 June 2022, Bennett announced he would call for a vote to dissolve the Knesset and step down as prime minister shortly after its dissolution, to be succeeded by Lapid.

On 29 June, he announced that he would not seek re-election to the chamber in the next election that have been scheduled for later in the year.

Lapid succeeded him as prime minister on 1 July 2022, while Bennett succeeded Lapid as the Alternate Prime Minister.

He also served as Minister of Community Affairs.

He announced his resignation as alternative prime minister on 6 November, which became effective on 8 November.