Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu

Lahav-Hertzanu was born on August 5, 1988.[1] A candidate profile from the 2019 Knesset election described him as the youngest candidate in that race.[1] Although he received a health-related exemption from compulsory military service, he subsequently volunteered with the Israel Defense Forces for six years.[1]

Before his election to the Knesset, Lahav-Hertzanu led Yesh Atid's youth wing and served as chair of the party's youth organization.[2][1] In a 2020 interview, he described entering politics with the explicit goal of ensuring that LGBTQ people would no longer be "inferior under the law," and identified same-sex marriage and LGBTQ surrogacy rights as his primary legislative objectives.[2]

Lahav-Hertzanu first appeared on the Kahol Lavan slate for the April 2019 election to the 21st Knesset, placed 35th on the list.[3] The party won exactly 35 seats, placing him in the 21st Knesset.[3] In the September 2019 election, he was again listed 35th, while Kahol Lavan won 33 seats, so he was not elected in the initial allocation.[3] He nevertheless later served in the 22nd Knesset; the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research identified him as its youngest member and listed him among the six men who left before the 23rd Knesset was inaugurated.[4]

For the March 2020 election to the 23rd Knesset, Lahav-Hertzanu once more appeared 35th on the Kahol Lavan list, with the party again winning 33 seats.[5] Despite not being elected outright, he entered the 23rd Knesset in June 2020 after a change in law allowed ministers to vacate their parliamentary seats and be replaced by the next eligible candidate on their party's list.[6] Because the Kahol Lavan alliance had fractured — with the Yesh Atid-Telem component joining the opposition — Knesset rules permitted him to choose which faction to represent, and he chose Yesh Atid-Telem.[6]

His list placement improved substantially for subsequent elections. In the March 2021 election to the 24th Knesset, he appeared 14th on the Yesh Atid slate; the party won 17 seats and he was returned to the Knesset.[7] For the November 2022 election to the 25th Knesset, he was again listed 14th on the Yesh Atid list, with the party winning 24 seats.[8] For the forthcoming 2026 election, Yesh Atid ranked him eighth among its own candidates.[9] He was subsequently placed 18th on the final B'Yachad list, formed after Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid joined efforts in April 2026.[10]

LGBTQ equality has been the defining issue of Lahav-Hertzanu's parliamentary career. When he entered the Knesset in June 2020, he became Israel's sixth openly gay lawmaker, bringing the total to six in the 120-seat parliament.[2] Political scientist Andrew Reynolds estimated at the time that openly gay lawmakers constituted approximately five percent of Israel's legislators, then among the highest proportions in the world.[2]

In November 2023, Lahav-Hertzanu advanced a significant legislative achievement: the Knesset approved an amendment in its third reading recognizing same-sex partners of fallen Israeli soldiers as widows or widowers for purposes of relevant family benefits.[11] He advanced the initiative together with the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel; the existing 1950 law had referred only to a fallen soldier's "husband" or "wife," leaving same-sex partners unrecognized in statute.[11]

Not all of his legislative proposals succeeded. Together with MK Eitan Ginzburg, he proposed an amendment that would have established a general prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity across Israeli state laws; the Knesset rejected the proposal in December 2025, with Justice Minister Yariv Levin calling the bill unnecessary.[12] He also sponsored a proposal — referred to in reporting as the BarNoar bill — to provide state recognition and compensation for victims of hate crimes comparable to provisions for victims of terror attacks. That bill was defeated in January 2026, with 56 members voting against and 40 in favor.[13]

Beyond legislation, Lahav-Hertzanu chaired the Knesset's LGBTQ caucus and campaigned alongside the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel against the ending of employment of LGBTQ coordinators in local authorities.[14] He also proposed an amendment to explicitly bar discrimination against LGBTQ people in higher education.[14]

Lahav-Hertzanu and his partner, Tzafrir, became parents to a daughter, Naomi, through surrogacy in Israel following a July 2021 High Court ruling that extended access to surrogacy to same-sex couples.[15] They were among the first male couples to begin the domestic surrogacy process after that ruling, having previously traveled to the United States to create embryos before continuing the process in Israel with a surrogate.[15] Describing the financial obstacles to pursuing surrogacy abroad, Lahav-Hertzanu said the choice had amounted to "choosing between an apartment and a child."[15]

In June 2021, Yesh Atid assigned Lahav-Hertzanu to the Knesset Interior and Environmental Protection Committee.[16] He also chaired the Knesset's informal environmental caucus, alongside his leadership of the LGBTQ caucus.[9]

In December 2024, he was identified as the primary sponsor of a rare cross-party bill seeking to penalize cabinet ministers who failed to respond to information requests from Knesset members.[17] He argued that ministers had left 900 parliamentary queries unanswered, saying the pattern "severely harms our ability to oversee the work of the government and serve the public."[17] The proposed bill would have allowed the Knesset Ethics Committee to issue reprimands or financial penalties for non-responses within 30 days, though a researcher quoted in reporting questioned whether that committee could legally sanction ministers who were not themselves Knesset members.[17]

As chair of the environmental caucus, Lahav-Hertzanu declined a request to host the 2024 Knesset Environment Day after the caucus and the environmental umbrella group Life and Environment decided not to hold the event, citing the ongoing war and what they regarded as a lack of government environmental achievements.[18] Environment Minister Idit Silman proceeded with the event through another MK; Lahav-Hertzanu stated he did not want Silman to use the caucus to promote herself and said the caucus would later organize a more comprehensive and critical event.[18]

He has also served internationally as an Israeli co-chair of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians.[19]

Because Lahav-Hertzanu remains an active politician, assessments of his longer-term legacy are necessarily provisional. His parliamentary profile has combined LGBTQ representation with concrete statutory advocacy: his June 2020 entry brought the number of openly gay lawmakers to six, and the 2023 amendment on partners of fallen soldiers placed recognition of same-sex partners into legislation.[2][11]

His work has also extended beyond LGBTQ policy through leadership of the environmental caucus and service as an Israeli co-chair of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians.[9][19]

Several of Lahav-Hertzanu's parliamentary actions have generated public controversy. During a February 2023 Constitution Committee meeting on proposed judicial changes, he jumped over a committee table and approached committee chair Simcha Rothman after opposition MKs had been removed from the room.[20] He described his action as crossing "the boundary of the table" and said he acted because he believed the government was advancing antidemocratic legislation and that Rothman was proceeding with a vote without pausing deliberations; coalition figures condemned the conduct of opposition members during the session.[20]

In June 2024, Rothman again ordered Lahav-Hertzanu to leave a committee hearing — this time on a bill concerning the selection of municipal rabbis — after he loudly criticized the legislation during proceedings of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.[21] Lahav-Hertzanu called the proceeding "a horror show" and the bill "a moral disgrace."[21]

In December 2022, he warned publicly that escalating anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from lawmakers could lead to deadly violence, telling Army Radio, "Words will not be the end of it. Words have power."[22] He also called for the cancellation of Noam leader Avi Maoz's appointment to head an Education Ministry unit responsible for approving extracurricular educational programs.[22]

In June 2026, Lahav-Hertzanu, in his capacity as head of the Knesset's LGBTQ caucus, accused Rome Pride organizers of antisemitism after the Jewish LGBTQ group Keshet Italia was barred from the event over its failure to denounce Israel's war in Gaza.[23] Invoking his family history, he recalled that his grandmother had been forced to flee Italy in the 1930s, and argued that requiring Jewish LGBTQ people to separate their Jewish identity from their LGBTQ identity imposed an unjust double standard. He said: "Nobody should have to pick between their Jewish identity and their LGBTQ identity."[23]