Eitan Ginzburg, Israel's First Openly Gay Mayor, Talks LGBTQ Issues in Israel
At 26, Eitan Ginzburg was the youngest person ever elected to the city council of Ra’anana, a Tel Aviv suburb of about 80,000 people. At the time, he worried how people would accept him coming out as a gay man.
“When I was elected, there was fear that it would ruin my career. It was going to ruin my life,” Ginzburg said. “I didn’t know how to deal with that. But time has changed. It was a process for myself; it was a process for the community.”
In 2018, he was elected Ra’anana’s mayor, making him the first openly gay major in Israel’s history. And today, Ginzburg, 42, is a member of the Knesset.
On June 27, the Consulate General of Israel in New York arranged for Ginzburg to attend a community discussion at the Germantown Jewish Centre for Pride Month. Attendees used the opportunity to ask the guest of honor about LGBTQ life in Israel.
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