Roy Folkman

Who they are

Roy Folkman is a public-sector strategist who sat in the Knesset for Kulanu and chaired its faction. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1975 to Andrei Amnon Folkman, born in Romania, and Naomi Lieb, born in Israel, and served as a combat medic in Nahal. On discharge he founded and ran the Dor HaHemshech department at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. He read economics and Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University, where he was also chief executive of the student association, and took a government master’s at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He was among the founders of Ruach Hadasha, a Jerusalem civic organisation. He ran the youth headquarters of Nir Barkat’s 2008 mayoral campaign, then advised Barkat on policy and headed the Jerusalem municipality’s policy and strategic planning division, before setting up his own strategic consultancy for local government, third-sector bodies and universities.

In the Knesset he worked on affordable housing and institutional rental, on small business, and on the quality of public administration, chairing the subcommittee on small and medium enterprises and a special committee on the stalled civil service reform. He later chaired a committee on the regulation of broadcasting, and published ‘Update Version’, a book on Israeli populism, in October 2021.

Positions and record

Where they stand

Holds the party line on every issue.