The granddaughter of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is entering the family business.
Noa Ben Artzi Rothman announced yesterday (Sunday, Aug. 2) that she plans to run this week as a candidate to become Labor Party delegate to the 37th World Zionist Congress in October.
Rothman, an attorney, is one of more than 150 candidates hoping to fill 70 delegate slots for the Labor Party at the Congress where worldwide heads of Zionist institutions are elected every five years.
The new political voice is backed by Keren Kayemet LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund World chairman Effi Stenzler, Labor’s top official in Zionist institutions, who welcomed Rothman’s candidacy. “Knowing her family, she is definitely fit to be a delegate to the Congress,” Stenzler said.
The daughter of former Deputy Defense Minister and Labor MK Dalia Rabin, Rothman first was seen in public at age 18 delivering the eulogy at her grandfather’s funeral.
She went on to serve in the IDF as a journalist at the military newspaper unit. During her service she wrote a book, “In the Name of Sorrow and Hope.” Rothman became a lawyer after leaving the IDF. She also eventually became the co-writer of the Israeli cable television series, “The Prime Minister’s Children.” As a script writer she used her past experience to create the fictional lives of an Israeli prime minister and his wife, two children and staff.
Lest controversy leave her behind – few Israeli politicians are untouched by any controversy – Rothman married Eldad Rothman, son of Shlomo Rothman, chairman of the Israel Electric Corporation.
Rothman himself is an up-and-coming attorney who served as the aide to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during his tenure as Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor. That error led to him being interrogated in connection with improper political appointments made by Olmert in 2008. He since become the co-founder and COO of the mega-online prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses retailer, GlassesUSA.com.
The Rothmans are parents to two young children.