Yehudis Eisenberger

The Honorable Minister of Transportation Yehudis Eisenberger
Official ministerial portrait.
Minister of Transportation
Incumbent
Assumed office February 3rd, 2020
Monarch	Hezekiah III (2020-present)
Preceded by	Aryeh Leib Hurwitz (AY)
Minister of the Interior
In office January 18th, 2016 – February 3rd, 2020
Preceded by	Yissachar Lieb
Succeeded by	David Touro
Personal details
Born	June 11th, 1965 Beersheva, Southern District
Nationality	Yisraeli
Political party	Royalist Conservative Party
Spouse	Nachi Eisenberger
Residence(s)	Yerushalayim, Yisrael
Alma mater	Bagrut certificate, Beersheva Seminary for Girls
Profession	Businesswoman, Housewife, Fundraiser

Yehudis R. Eisenberger (born June 11th, 1965) is a Yisraeli politician who is the current Minister of Transportation under President Yitzchok Katz. Previously, she had served as Interior Minister for the second-term of Noah Feldman (2016-2020). Eisenberger is a major so-called "mega-donor" (along with her husband) and a member of the Royalist Conservative Party. Before her public service, she served on a number of corporate boards.

Early life

Eisenberger was born on June 11, 1965, to Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Menachem and Rochel Feingold (neé Zuscov) in the Central General Hospital in Beersheva, Southern District, Yisrael. She was one of nine children, being the third oldest child and the oldest daughter. Her father was the head of a prestigious Chareidi yeshiva of the Belisarian tradition in Beersheva.

She grew up in the Southern District's capital - the largest city in the arid desert region - and attended a number of local Chareidi day schools and a yeshiva ketana (high school) for Yeshivish Belisarian Chareidi girls. She graduated in 1983 with her high school diploma. Eisenberger then went and learned women's topics in Halacha and Tanach for two years at the top girls' post-high school seminary in Yerushalayim, Sharpman's Institute for Pious Women.

At the end of her second year by Sharpman's, her family hired a shadchan (matchmaker), and about four months into the dating process, she agreed to go on a date with Nachi Eisenberger, who finishing three years learning Torah by the elite Mir Yeshiva. After nine dates and four weeks, they were engaged and married three months later in Beersheva in 1985.

Business career

Her husband Nachi was the oldest son and heir to his father's lucrative import-export business. After their first year in marriage, when she had illustrated her business sense by being a Baalebusta in running their home efficiently and smoothly, her father-in-law agreed to have her join the business in an managerial role.

Eisenberger handled some Scipian accounts of clients and eventually started running sales. In 1990, she was made head of the sales department, bringing in revenue of over $3 million shekels by that point.

Political activism

1990s

As part of the Con-Lib wave in the late 1980s and early 1990s in reaction to the Schwartz presidency, the Southern District, which had seen Conservative political dominance since the mid-1970s, was inundated with a pivot towards the Constitutional Liberals, who with the help of a few local minor left-wing parties won control of the full District government: the governorship, the legislature, and many local offices.

The new Con-Lib era immediately saw political disfavor towards the Chareidi sector, with cuts to kollel subsidies to full-time Torah learners, including yeshivos like her father's, as well a revocation of shuls' tax-exempt status, a change in the kathrus standard held by the District government in public facilities from mehadrin (as Chareidim held by) to a lower level, stam (regular kosher), without the stringencies that the Chareidi community relied on. In addition, many new politicians publicly remarked in the media from time-to-time disparagingly towards the Chareidi sector.

Increasingly feeling under attack and excluded from general society, Yehudis and her husband Nachi decided to become politically active and improve the situation for their community.

In 1991, the pair raised $568,000 shekels for local Conservative and Torah Achdus candidates. The next year, Eisenberger headed the finance committee for Osher Wasserman, the Right Bloc candidate for governor against incumbent Con-Lib Uri Perrel. She raised $3.4 million, a fundraising milestone at the time for a rural district, and Wasserman, a Conservative cross-endorsed by the Torah Achdus and other smaller right-wing parties, ousted Perrel that year 52.3%-46.5%.

Her fundraising prowess for Wasserman reached the ears of the Conservative National Committee, who in 1993 approached her and her husband to help join the party's national finance committee for its Knesset candidates in the 1994 elections. She agreed, and between 1993-2000 helped raise $32 million shekels for Conservative MK incumbents and challengers in the 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 elections, as well as in special elections.

2000s

In advance of the 2000 elections, Eisenberger formed her own political action committee, called the Conservative Reformers for Yisrael PAC.

Political views

She is a mainstream Conservative, and leans towards its Chareidi wing as she and her husband both were raised and live in the Chareidi sector.

She helped organize the 2009 "New Chareidi" coup in the Torah Achdus party to oust its old-time transactional benefits-over-ideology leadership and install an ideologically-focused clique aligned with the Conservatives.

She endorsed Yitzchok Katz during the 2020 Conservative presidential primary when he launched his campaign, saying she was "proud that a Chareidi politician could finally have a chance to lead our nation and promote Torah values."

Personal life and family

Eisenberger (neé Feingold) is married to husband Nachi Moshe since 1985. They have 6 children (by order of age): Devorah (age 34), Chanah (age 32), Zuriel (age 32), Leah (age 29), Binyamin (25), and Tova (17).

The Eisenbergers belong to a Chareidi community in Har Nof, Yerushalayim as well as maintain a secondary home near their parents in Beersheva.

She is known as an accomplished baker and chef as well as a prolific fundraiser for both political and religious causes.