Tzvika Brot
Mayor of Bat Yam, Israel
Tzvika Brot, a former journalist for Army Radio and Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest circulation newspaper in Israel.
In 2005, he became the newspaper's parliamentary correspondent, reporting from the Knesset for ten years.
In 2008, Brot was listed by Forbes as one of the most influential Israelis under the age of 40.
Brot founded a strategy company, BSI Public Affairs, that provides services to international governments and non-governmental organizations. Together with his partners in Israel and the United States Europe, and Asia. Brot served as a strategic advisor to foreign governments and leaders.
In July 2016, Brot was hired by the U.S. Republican party to conduct an election campaign in Israel for U.S. President Donald Trump. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called the event Brot organized in Jerusalem’s Old City, which was broadcast live to America, a “game-changer.” According to press reports, Brot ran a “disciplined and well-organized campaign targeting approximately 200,000 American citizens residing in Israel.”
In 2018, Brot ran for mayor of the coastal city of Bat Yam on the Likud ticket, defeating the incumbent mayor, Yossi Bachar. Brot's vision for the city as one of Israel's largest, but also most crowded cities, is to step up development of employment hubs, commerce and hotels, while stemming the tide of residential housing construction.
Tzvika Brot was born and raised in Bat Yam. Brot attended local elementary schools at Aderet high school. He served in the Israel Defense Forces as a reporter and broadcaster for Army Radio (Galei Zahal). Brot studied law, earning an LLB from Ono Academic College. Today, Brot at 42 years old is the youngest mayor elected in bat Yam Municipality.
About Bat Yam
Bat Yam is a city located on Israel’s Mediterranean Coast, on the central coastal strip just a ten-minute drive south of Tel Aviv. Bat Yam has beautiful promenades and beaches, great education system, culture and art exhibitions, landscape-urbanism architecture sites and a diverse immigrant community.
In 2020, Bat Yam had a population of nearly 160,000 and is one of the 15 largest cities in Israel. Bat Yam experienced a period of rapid growth in the early 1980s to the late 1990s with the mass immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. Today, Russian immigrants make up nearly 30% of the population.
In response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Brot proposed a series of measures to stop the spike in new infections, among them closing the local beaches between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., closing synagogues, banning gatherings of more than ten people and closing schools from fifth grade and up. Brot has described his city as a model in its response to the virus, taking preventive measures.
Bat Yam's leadership led a process to improve municipal services to the residents, infusing data-based decision making and resident-centered approach. In the past year the city has been developing a strategic plan for community development in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Bat Yam is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. The Ministry of Interior has tried to incorporated Bat Yam into the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo due to economic difficulties. Tzvika opposed to the union with Tel Aviv. Since 2019, the city leadership operated to improve the financial sustainability of the city. In three years, the city administration reduced the deficit from 87 million NIS to a deficit of 0 without compromising the level of municipal service to its residents. In 2021, following rigorous efforts of Bat Yam's mayor Tzikva Brot and CEO Yodfat Afek Arazi, the resolution was canceled.