Knesset swears in first Philadelphia-born MK: Moshe Tur-Paz
Educator Moshe Tur-Paz raised by British parents
By GIL HOFFMANPhiladelphia-born Yesh Atid MK Moshe Tur-Paz is sworn in as a Knesset member. 5 Jan, 2020.(photo credit: DANNY SHEMTOV/KNESSET SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)
Philadelphia-born educator Moshe Tur-Paz of Yesh Atid was sworn in as an MK on Tuesday. He replaced Blue and White MK Einav Kabla, who quit the Knesset on Sunday to run with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai’s new The Israelis Party in the March 23 election.Tur-Paz is a former director-general of the Jerusalem Education Authority, the World ORT education network in Israel and the school system of the Religious Kibbutzim Movement. He currently heads Ma.com, an innovative online school.Tur-Paz’s British parents made aliyah in the 1950s. He was born while they were Jewish Agency emissaries in Philadelphia and spent part of his childhood in England when they were emissaries again. His father was a Jewish Agency in Israel senior official.He will have to formally renounce his US citizenship to enter the Knesset. He never became a British citizen.Tur-Paz is the seventh US-born MK, following Yehuda Ben-Meir, Marcia Freedman, Meir Kahane, Dov Lipman, Michael Oren and Yehudah Glick. They were born in either New York or New Jersey, except for Lipman, who was born in Washington, DC, and made aliyah from Maryland."Three months are a short time but I have three issues I intend to advance: Education, bringing people from different sectors together and connecting Israel to the Diaspora," Tur-Paz told The Jerusalem Post. "I come from a family of olim, with one leg here and one leg there. Israelis don't understand how challenging it is for olim."Tur-Paz said his parents read The Post and watch the BBC, and he is very thankful to them for coming when they did and making life in Israel easier for him. He said he would see himself as a representative in the Knesset of immigrants and children of immigrants as long as he is in the parliament."I know I am coming for a short time, and I will do my best," he said. "If I come back to the next Knesset, that would be very nice. But if not, I will go back to my work helping the country in other ways. Either way, I believe in Yair Lapid and Yesh Atid, and I believe I bring them a unique voice." Meanwhile, former justice minister Avi Nissenkorn handed in his resignation to Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin on Sunday.Nissenkorn, who resigned as justice minister last Wednesday, left Blue and White for the second slot on Huldai’s list.Nissenkorn was replaced by the next candidate on the combined Blue and White/Yesh Atid list, Yesh Atid candidate Vladimir Beliak, who was sworn in alongside Tur-Paz on Tuesday.Minister Izhar Shay has announced that he is leaving Blue and White, but unlike Nissenkorn, he has yet to find a new political home.
