A Canadian in the Knesset 

Michal Cotler-Wunsh is a Member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party. She serves as Chair of the Special Committee on Drug and Alcohol Use, Chair of the Subcommittee on Israel-Diaspora Relations, and as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense, Law, Children’s Rights, Women’s Rights, and Immigration and Integration Committees. Michal is also the Chair of the Canada-Israel Friendship Group, the Knesset’s Official Representative on Matters Related to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and a founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism. 

Michal was born in Israel and grew up in Canada. She is a PhD candidate in the Human Rights under Pressure - Ethics, Law and Politics program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Freie Universität of Berlin, researching freedom of speech, civil liberties, democratic theories, and multiculturalism.

Prior to becoming a Member of Knesset, Michal served as a research fellow at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at IDC Herzliya and was a board member at “Tzav Pius” – an NGO dedicated to creating opportunities to connect Israelis along the secular-religious spectrum. Michal is committed to promoting, advancing, and protecting the rule of law, human rights, Israel-diaspora relations, Jewish communities throughout the world, and integration of old and new immigrants in Israel.

A Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University currently living in Jerusalem, Gil Troy is an award-winning American presidential historian and a leading Zionist activist. He he authored and co-authored many books including: The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland – Then, Now, Tomorrow,  Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight against Zionism as Racism, co-authored Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People with the former Soviet Prisoner of Zion and human rights activist Natan Sharansky, and over ten books on the American presidency. He also appeared as a featured commentator on CNN’s popular multipart documentaries, The Eighties, The Nineties, and The 2000s. 

Troy has published essays in the American, Canadian, and Israeli media, including writing essays for the New York Times’ “Campaign Stops” in 2012 and 2016. He writes a monthly column for the Daily Beast, “Secret Lives,” putting current events in historical perspective, and writes a weekly column for the Jerusalem Post.