Blue and White Party chairman Benny Gantz appointed MK Omer Yankelevich as the incoming Diaspora Minister today. Yankelevich will be the first ever female haredi cabinet minister in the Israeli Knesset.
Yankelevich is married with five children and lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
The World Bnei Akiva movement applauded her appointment: "The incoming minister is a daughter of immigrants who came to Israel, her mother from Latvia, her father from Lithuania."
World Bnei Akiva Secretary General Roi Abecassis said: "The coronavirus crisis [has produced] numerous challenges in our path. There are communities that have been badly hurt; some are facing financial difficulties and it is crucial to make sure the state pipeline isn't cut off to them. I am sure that Minister Yankelevich will be able to construct meaningful networks just like she did while leading a series of social ventures between various groups within Israeli society, as well as communities in the center of the country and in the periphery."
Gantz convened party MKs today, dividing up ministerial appointments in the unity government.