Hili Tropper

Tropper was born in Jerusalem in 1978 and grew up as one of ten children in a religious-Zionist family.[1][7] His father, Rabbi Dr. Daniel Tropper, founded Gesher, an organization seeking to bring together different movements within Judaism; his mother, Faygie, trained as a psychologist.[1] His parents immigrated to Israel from the United States with their two oldest children, while Hili and the couple’s other younger children were born in Jerusalem.[8]

He attended the religious Horev school and a religious high school.[1] Recalling his school years, he said that he struggled to find his place and devoted more attention to volunteering and organizational activities.[1] He subsequently attended the Nachshon pre-military academy and served in the Israel Defense Forces’ Duvdevan unit as a combat soldier and commander.[1][9] In a later interview, he recalled the deaths of three friends in a friendly-fire incident during an operation to arrest a wanted man, describing the lasting memories and grief associated with their deaths.[9]

Tropper married Tzofit, and the couple have four children.[1] They settled in Ness Harim, a mixed religious-secular community near Jerusalem, where their children attended a mixed school.[1] He has described his father as the most significant man in his life and said that they discussed his political choices.[8]

After his military discharge, Tropper spent two years counseling members of Jerusalem street gangs.[8] He subsequently worked in education and social programs, including as a youth instructor and as deputy director of Aharai, an organization working with young people in Israel’s periphery.[1] His municipal work included positions in Bat Yam’s Education and Social Division and in educational administration in Yeruham.[8][3]

Tropper became principal of the Branco Weiss school in Ramle, which served young people who had left or struggled within the regular school system.[1] His work there centered on giving students another opportunity to complete their education, and his management drew public attention.[2][3] He also helped establish nonprofit organizations and foundations assisting needy families, particularly children and teenagers.[2]

Among these initiatives was Good Neighbor, of which he was a founder and chairman.[2] The organization distributed food baskets to families in need and helped establish learning centers for underprivileged children.[2] He also co-founded an organization seeking to connect social justice with Jewish tradition.[2]

His early political involvement included advising Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich’s election campaigns and helping develop her socioeconomic agenda.[2] In 2013, he ran in the Labor primaries, placed 23rd, and remained outside the Knesset.[3] He later served as a professional adviser to Education Minister Shai Piron and, after Piron left office, directed Yeruham’s education, welfare, and culture administration.[3]

Tropper helped establish Benny Gantz’s Hosen LeYisrael movement in 2018.[1] It subsequently joined Telem and Yesh Atid to form Blue and White, with which Tropper was first elected to the Knesset in 2019.[1] He became one of Gantz’s closest aides, worked on strategy and content, and wrote Gantz’s launch speech.[3] He was also selected to lead preparations for a possible governmental transition if Gantz were tasked with forming a government.[2]

Tropper occupied the 12th position on Blue and White’s candidate lists for both the April and September 2019 elections and was listed among the members of the 22nd Knesset.[10] He again appeared in 12th place for the March 2020 election, in which the alliance won 33 seats.[11] In a 2019 interview, he described his outlook as centrist and religious-Zionist, distinguished it from far-right politics, and argued that public debate should devote more attention to internal social concerns, including healthcare, rather than concentrating on right-left divisions.[8]

In May 2020, Tropper explained Blue and White’s entry into government as a response to an exceptional political and public-health crisis.[12] He identified economic recovery, rebuilding the public health system, and national reconciliation as priorities during the COVID-19 emergency.[12] He became minister of culture and sport in the government sworn in on May 17, 2020, following a political stalemate and three elections.[13] That government was Israel’s largest to that point, with 36 cabinet ministers and 16 deputy ministers.[13]

Much of his initial ministerial work concerned the pandemic’s impact on cultural institutions and sports.[1] In a 2020 interview, he described efforts to keep activities operating and secure financial support for affected sectors, citing a 110-million-shekel safety net for professional sports and 200 million shekels for cultural institutions.[1] He also cited additional funding for local authorities, film, and veteran artists.[1] In May 2021, the government added the science and technology portfolio to his existing responsibilities.[14] He continued as culture and sport minister in the 36th government, whose term ran from June 13, 2021, to December 28, 2022.[15]

After the October 7, 2023 attack, Tropper said that he, Gantz, and Gadi Eisenkot agreed that they should enter the emergency government.[16] In his retrospective account, they joined on October 11, and he served as a cabinet member.[16] He characterized their participation as a national emergency partnership rather than a political partnership.[16]

By January 2026, possible changes in Tropper’s political affiliation were being discussed publicly.[17] Reports described polling scenarios in which he might lead a new party or join another political force if Blue and White remained below the electoral threshold; these were possibilities rather than announced decisions at that stage.[17]

On July 7, 2026, Tropper and Yoaz Hendel announced a joint election campaign, presenting themselves as equal partners alongside Shira Shapira and reservist Elyasaf Peretz.[18] Their alliance sought to build a larger Zionist political force and a broad Zionist government while remaining formally unaffiliated with either the Netanyahu bloc or the opposition bloc.[18] Tropper and Hendel also shared a local connection: both lived in Ness Harim and prayed at the same synagogue.[17]

The alliance, described as Zionist Home–The Reservists, proved short-lived.[5][18] On September 6, Tropper and Hendel announced separate political paths, and Tropper merged his Zionist Home party into Eisenkot’s Yashar party.[5][18] Their joint political project had consistently polled below the electoral threshold; after the split, Hendel announced a joint run with economist Yaron Zelekha.[18] Tropper was placed sixth on Yashar’s candidate list and had pledged not to serve in a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.[19][6] After the election, he was listed sixth among Yashar’s incoming Knesset members. The party won 21 seats, and the new Knesset was scheduled to be sworn in on November 10, 2026.[6]

In February 2020, Tropper donated a kidney to a stranger at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital through the Matnat Chaim organization.[4] The recipient, Yair, had depended on dialysis after his kidneys failed, and the transplant succeeded.[4] Tropper said that he timed the procedure for a period when the Knesset was not actively working because recovery would temporarily prevent him from serving constituents.[4]

Explaining his decision, Tropper said that doctors had described the process to him and that he understood the risk to be minimal.[20] He considered the possibility of saving a life more important than the fact that donation required surgery.[20] He remained in regular contact with Yair afterward, including a conversation every Friday.[20]

His educational work also extended into writing and his household.[7] By 2026, he had written four books, all related in some way to education.[7] He and his family took in a 15-year-old haredi girl who had dropped out of school, and he later accompanied her to her wedding.[7] After Russia invaded Ukraine, he hosted a refugee family consisting of a woman named Lena, her nine-year-old son Mark, and their dog, Gosha.[7]

Tropper and other young couples also helped organize an expansion of Ness Harim intended to bring religious and secular families into the same community.[7] The initiative sold 100 plots in six weeks through word of mouth, without screening or a selection committee.[7] This local initiative accompanied his wider involvement in educational opportunity, assistance to disadvantaged families, and efforts to connect religious and secular Israelis.[2][7]

During the pandemic, Tropper argued that cultural institutions should be permitted to operate when synagogues were open, while also acknowledging the importance of prayer and religious life.[21] At the end of his roughly two-and-a-half-year tenure as culture minister, he said that he had opposed censorship and did not regard his role as that of a cultural commissar.[21]

His positions on prisoner exchanges and relations within Israeli society also addressed politically sensitive questions.[12] Discussing a possible exchange with Hamas in May 2020, he said that Israel had long dealt with Hamas as Gaza’s governing authority through intermediaries.[12] He argued that the captives issue should become leverage within a broader strategy rather than remain a tactical matter, and that Israel should learn from earlier exchanges, particularly the Gilad Shalit deal, rather than pay a comparable price again.[12] Asked in the same interview about a reported finding portraying hostile Jewish public attitudes toward the Arab population, he called for government action; his answer expressed a policy position rather than establishing the accuracy of the finding cited in the question.[12]