MTech founder Yaffa Tabaja joins Gadi Eisenkot's party

Social entrepreneur and founder of the MTech innovation and entrepreneurship center, Yaffa Tabaja, is joining the 'Yashar!' party led by Gadi Eisenkot. The 35-year-old Tabaja has worked in recent years to promote the periphery, reduce social gaps, and integrate diverse populations into the economy and technology sectors.

Tabaja was born and raised in Karmiel, in a family of eight children whose parents immigrated from Ethiopia in 1984 as part of Operation Moses. For the last 13 years, she has lived and worked in Ashkelon. She began her public career in 2017, when she was elected chair of the student union at the Ashkelon Academic College, and later joined the management of the National Union of Students as a representative of public colleges.

In recent years, she established and managed the MTech innovation and entrepreneurship center at the initiative of the Ashkelon Municipality. Under her leadership, the center created collaborations with technology companies and led programs for integrating adults and people with disabilities into advanced employment sectors. Alongside this, Tabaja established a community of hundreds of entrepreneurs and worked to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the south. For her achievements, she was named one of the 40 promising young people by the economic magazine 'Globes'.

As part of her activities with the 'Yashar!' party, Tabaja will work to promote mental health, growth engines in the periphery, expanded opportunities for higher education, social equality, and excellence among Ethiopian immigrants. She holds a bachelor's degree in criminology and government and a master's degree in communications.

Party chairman Gadi Eisenkot stated:

"Yaffa brings vision and proven results in the connection between the periphery, technology, and social leadership. She represents what the State of Israel needs at this time — leadership that grows from the ground up, speaks eye-to-eye, and is capable of connecting different communities out of mutual respect and appreciation. Yaffa is an energetic and significant voice that faithfully represents the future generation of public leadership in Israel. Yaffa, welcome to our team."

Tabaja added:

"Israel is facing enormous social and economic challenges, and the way to shape our future is not to watch from the sidelines, but to take responsibility and influence from within the decision-making centers. I believe that at this time we need leadership that looks eye-to-eye at all parts of the people and creates real opportunities for the geographical and social periphery. I decided to join Gadi Eisenkot and the 'Yashar!' party because I see Gadi as a unifying, statesmanlike, responsible leader with a deep desire to provide vision and hope to all residents of the State of Israel."