# Yechiel Leiter

Yechiel "Michael" Leiter (Hebrew: יחיאל לייטר; born October 1, 1959) is an American-born Israeli historian of philosophy, public policy analyst, rabbi and settlement activist. He is a resident scholar at the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. On January 24, 2025, he assumed the position of Israeli ambassador to the United States. He previously served as chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli Ministry of Finance and as political assistant to Ariel Sharon in the Israeli parliament. An ordained rabbi, Leiter has written three books and numerous essays on the politics of the Middle East. He is affiliated with the Kohelet Policy Forum.

## Early life and education

Yechiel Leiter was born on 1 October 1959 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The newspaper Haaretz claimed that as a youth, Leiter was active in the far-right Jewish Defense League led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, and emigrated to Israel together with other activists from that organization. He arrived in Israel in 1978 at the age of eighteen, served as a combat medic in the Israeli Defense Forces and participated in Operation Peace for the Galilee in 1982.
Leiter holds an undergraduate degree in law, a Bachelor of Arts in political science, a Master of Arts in international relations, and a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Haifa. His doctoral thesis focuses on the influence of the Hebrew Bible on John Locke's theory of consensual government. He studied Judaism over the course of eight years and subsequently taught Judaism at a number of centers for higher learning in Jerusalem.

## Career

Leiter served as a political advisor to Knesset member Ariel Sharon and in multiple senior government positions: first as deputy director general of the Israeli Ministry of Education, where he helped plan a major overhaul of the educational system, and then as chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu in the Ministry of Finance, where he took an active role in economic reforms.
Leiter subsequently became a senior policy analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where he directed and edited a geopolitical blog. In that capacity, he was a frequent guest on Israeli news programs and a contributor to such Israeli media outlets such as YNet, Maariv-NRG, and Yisrael Hayom.
In 2008, Leiter ran as a candidate for election to the Knesset in the Likud Party's primaries.
He has served as the chief executive officer of 3H Global, an international consultancy group specializing in aiding governments to formulate and implement policy.
In 2011, he was elected chairman of Israel Ports Authority. In that capacity he was responsible for the planning of Israel's seaport operations and the building of two new deep-water ports in Ashdod and Haifa.
Leiter taught political philosophy in the law faculty at the Ono Academic College in Kiryat Ono. He is strategic advisor to the Foundation for the Archaeological Exploration, Restoration and Expansion of Ancient Shiloh.
Leiter has served as a member of the board of governors of the University of Judea and Samaria in Ariel and as a director on the National Committee for the Perpetuation of the Memory of Theodor Herzl. He serves on the board of directors of The Israel Experience, a daughter company of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which manages the "Taglit-Birthright" program in Israel.
Leiter has authored three books and dozens of articles on Zionism and Israeli politics and has lectured extensively to audiences throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia, South Africa, and South America.

## Personal life

For many years he resided in Eli with his wife and their eight children. In recent years he has lived in Alon Shevut. His son, Major (Res.) Moshe Yedidia Leiter, a medical graduate, served as a platoon commander in the Shaldag Unit and was killed in the northern Gaza Strip in 2023 in the Iron Swords War.