Stav Shaffir, 26-year-old journalist, social activist, and red-headed leader of Israel’s social protest movement, has become the voice for people from all walks of Israeli society. Traveling around her country, she’s listened to the dreams of high school students, the concerns and ideas of entrepreneurs and business leaders, and the hopes and disappointment of workers. She represents the disenfranchised and speaks truth to power, through testimony in the Israeli Parliament, and public appearances on television and radio. She has been featured in Time Magazine, The New York Times, and on the BBC among others, and her columns have been published in the Israeli press, including Haaretz, Yedioth Aharonot, TheMarker, Ynet, and the Jewish Review of Books.

Before the 2011 protest movement was initiated, Stav worked as an editor for Yedioth Aharonot’s website and studied for her Master’s degree in the Philosophy and History of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University. Stav has a BA in Journalism and Sociology from City University London, where she was the recipient of the Olive Tree Program scholarship, a unique initiative for young leaders from Israel and Palestine. She also studied Music Composition at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and volunteered for educational and political initiatives, such as conflict resolution between the secular and the religious Jewish communities, and with asylum seekers in Israel.