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Sivan

Rahav-Meir:

A Remarkable Journey

In the summer of 2019, World Mizrachi announced that Sivan Rahav-Meir and her husband
Yedidya would be moving to the United States to be shlichim for a year, beginning a new chapter
in her remarkable career. Sivan’s journey – from a secular home in Herzliya to becoming a
leading voice of Israel’s Religious Zionist community – is both remarkable and inspirational.

orn to a secular Israeli family Shimon Peres, and even the Power Rangers keep the Torah we received at Mount Sinai
in 1982, Sivan moved with her when they visited Israel!” rests with everyone, including me.”
family from Ramat HaSharon to
B Herzliya when she was six years During her degree studies, Sivan took Nechama Leibowitz z”l became her role
old. By age 8, she was identified as a gifted courses in Jewish thought. Though these model. “As a 15-year-old girl, she helped me
understand that the Torah is about much
child and began an advanced educational courses lit a spark in her, they were not more than Bagruyot tests (high school
track, ultimately graduating high school the only impetus for her religious journey. matriculation exams in Israel) on Tanach.
and completing a degree in Political Science “If you ask me how it all began, I can give Reading her books, I began to understand
and Management from Tel Aviv University you an intellectual answer, about the that asking questions is more important
before she turned 18. powerful experience of learning Nechama than reaching answers, and that making
Leibowitz, Rav Kook and Rav Soloveitchik. Torah accessible to every farmer and new
From a young age, she also took an interest But the simple truth is that a few girls my immigrant is more important than sitting
in journalism. “I wrote my first piece for a age invited me to their house to experience and studying in an ivory tower.”
children’s newspaper at the age of six, and a Shabbat, and then another and another, Sivan joined the army and served in Galei
in elementary school I would interview and this made me want to bring that magic Tzahal, the army radio station. After that
my friends. As I moved through school, I into my own life. I began to keep Shabbat. she joined Channel 2, Israel’s preeminent
began to get great opportunities as a youth At a very slow pace – some might say too TV station, where she served in a number
journalist – I interviewed Yitzchak Rabin, slow – I realized that the responsibility to of roles, most prominently as an anchor on

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