Former Upper East Side Resident Becomes Israeli Prime Minister

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Years before he entered politics and two decades before he ousted Benjamin Netanyahu to become the next Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett lived on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Bennett, 49, was born in Israel to Jewish American parents who hailed from San Francisco. His mother and father considered themselves "left-wingers" before they moved to Israel and discovered Israeli nationalism, a philosophy they passed on to their son.

In 2000, Bennett moved to New York to start a business career and settled on the Upper East Side with his wife, Gilat. Here, he entered the tech industry, founding a fraud-prevention company that he later sold for $145 million, according to a 2013 New Yorker profile. (Gilat worked as a pastry chef at trendy restaurants including Aureole and Bouley Bakery.)

The Upper East Side, too, was the site of an awakening of sorts for the couple. Gilat, who had been "totally secular," began attending beginner's services at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an orthodox synagogue on East 85th Street near Lexington Avenue.

Bennett soon joined her and they continued attending for several years, with Bennett later speaking positively of the synagogue's "no-questions-asked approach."

"We had to leave Israel and travel to New York for Gilat, my secular wife, to grow closer to Judaism," he told the Times of Israel.

Having made a fortune in tech, Bennett and his wife moved back to Israel and entered politics in 2006 as Netanyahu's chief of staff. After co-founding My Israel, a right-wing Zionist movement, in 2010, Bennett later became a party leader and ultimately spearheaded the coalition government that ended Netanyahu's 12-year reign.

Considered a staunch conservative, Bennett rose to prominence in part by championing Jewish settlements on the West Bank, a practice that has been condemned as a violation of international law by the United Nations and a number of other global groups.

If Bennett's government holds, he will remain prime minister for two years before being succeeded by Yair Lapid, his centrist coalition partner.