Mickey Gitzin is, sine 2017, the Executive Director of the New Israel Fund in Israel. Mickey served as a city council member in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, where he chaired committees for diversity and public housing. He was also the Mayor’s advisor for global development and innovation.
Prior to joining NIF, Mickey was the founding director of “Israel Hofsheet” (Be Free Israel), a leading grassroots organization fighting for separation of religion and state in Israel. Previously, Mickey was the spokesperson for MK Ilan Gilon )Meretz( and the Associate Director of "Festival BeShekel," an organization advancing arts and culture in Israel’s geographic and socioeconomic periphery. After completing his military service as an intelligence officer, he served as a shaliach (emissary) in South Bend, Indiana for the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Mickey holds a Master’s in Public Policy from University College-London, for which he received a Chevening Scholarship from the British Foreign Office and the British Council.
In 2013, Mickey received NIF UK’s Human Rights Award, and in 2015, NIF’s Gallanter Prize for Emerging Israeli Social Justice Leaders. In 2020 he was ranked as the 43th most influential person in Israel by “TheMarker” Magazine.
