Shulamit Aloni Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Shulamit Aloni


Ministerial roles
1974	Minister without Portfolio
1992–1993	Minister of Education and Culture
1993	Minister without Portfolio
1993–1996	Minister of Communications
1993–1996	Minister of Science and the Arts
Faction represented in the Knesset
1965–1967	Labor Alignment
1967–1968	Labor Party
1968–1969	Alignment
1974–1975	Ratz
1975–1976	Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement
1976–1981	Ratz
1981–1984	Alignment
1984–1992	Ratz
1992–1996	Meretz

Personal details
Born	(1928-12-27)27 December 1928 Tel Aviv (then Mandatory Palestine)
Died	24 January 2014(2014-01-24) (aged 85) Kfar Shmaryahu, Israel
Alma mater	Hebrew University, L.L.B \| David Yellin College of Education, BA

Born	Shulamit Adler

Shulamit Aloni (Hebrew: שולמית אלוני; 27 December 1928 – 24 January 2014) was an important Israeli politician. She was known for starting the Ratz party and later leading the Meretz party. She also served as the Leader of the Opposition from 1988 to 1990 and was the Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993. In 2000, she received the prestigious Israel Prize for her contributions.

Biography of Shulamit Aloni
Personal Life and Family
Shulamit Aloni Prize
Awards and Recognition
Published Works
Images for kids
See also

Biography of Shulamit Aloni

Early Life and Education

Shulamit Adler was born in Tel Aviv, a city in what was then called Mandatory Palestine. This was the name for the area before the modern state of Israel was created. Her parents came from Poland; her mother was a seamstress, and her father was a carpenter. Shulamit grew up in Tel Aviv.

During World War II, she went to a boarding school while her parents served in the British Army. As a young person, she joined the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, which had socialist Zionist ideas. She was also part of the Palmach, a defense force. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, she fought in battles for the Old City of Jerusalem and was captured by Jordanian forces.

After Israel became a country, Shulamit helped child refugees and set up a school for children who had recently moved to Israel. She taught at a school while also studying law. In 1952, she married Reuven Aloni, who founded the Israel Lands Administration. They moved to Kfar Shmaryahu.

In 1959, Aloni joined the Mapai political party. She also worked as a lawyer and hosted a radio show called Outside Working Hours. This show discussed important topics like human rights and women's rights. She also wrote articles for different newspapers.

Political Career and Achievements

Shulamit Aloni in the Knesset in 1965.

In 1965, Shulamit Aloni was elected to the Knesset, which is Israel's parliament. She was part of the Alignment political group. After this, she started the Israel Consumers Council and was its leader for four years.

In 1973, she left the Alignment and created her own political party, the Citizens Rights Movement, which became known as Ratz. This party focused on making elections fairer, separating religion from government, and protecting human rights. In the 1973 elections, Ratz won three seats in the Knesset.

Ratz briefly joined the government, and Aloni became a Minister without Portfolio. This means she was a minister but didn't lead a specific government department. However, she quickly resigned because she disagreed with another minister's appointment.

Throughout the 1970s, Aloni worked to create discussions with Palestinians to find a way to achieve lasting peace. During the 1982 Lebanon War, she helped create the International Center for Peace in the Middle East.

In 1992, she led Ratz into a new alliance with other parties, forming the Meretz party. Under her leadership, Meretz won 12 seats in the elections that year. Aloni became the Minister of Education under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. She had to resign after a year because of her strong opinions on religious matters. She also spoke out against Israeli high school trips to Holocaust concentration camps, saying they made young Israelis too aggressive. After resigning as Education Minister, she was appointed Minister of Communications and Minister of Science and Culture.

After the Oslo Accords (peace agreements) were signed in 1993, Aloni felt they were a very positive and historic step forward. After a tragic event in Hebron in 1994, she called for Jewish settlers to leave the city.

After the 1996 Knesset election, Meretz lost some seats, and Aloni was replaced as the party leader by Yossi Sarid. She then decided to retire from politics.

Later Years and Activism

After retiring from politics, Shulamit Aloni continued to be involved in human rights work. She became a board member of Yesh Din, an organization founded in 2005. Yesh Din focuses on protecting human rights in the Palestinian territories.

Personal Life and Family

Shulamit Aloni and her husband, Reuven Aloni, had three sons:

Dror Aloni – He later became the mayor of Kfar Shmaryahu and led the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium school.
Nimrod Aloni – He is a philosopher focused on education.
Udi Aloni – He is a film director, writer, and artist.

Reuven Aloni passed away in 1988.

Shulamit Aloni Prize

In 2018, the Shulamit Aloni Prize was created. This award is given by the Shulamit Aloni Foundation, a group started by her family and people from media and culture. The prize includes money and is given each year at the Jaffa Theater. It honors creators of cultural works (like theater, film, poetry, and stories) in both Hebrew and Arabic languages. These works must promote human rights. Some of the first people to receive the prize include Rana Abu Fraihah, Renana Raz, and Sami Michael.

Awards and Recognition

Shulamit Aloni received many honors for her work:

In 1994, she received an honorary PhD in Humanities from Hebrew Union College.
Also in 1994, she received an honorary PhD of Law from Kon-Kuk University.
In 1998, she was given a special lifetime award called the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
In 1999, she received an honorary PhD of Philosophy from the Weitzman Institute of Science.
In 2000, she received the most important award in Israel, the Israel Prize. This was for her lifetime achievements and special contributions to Israeli society and the state.

Published Works

Shulamit Aloni wrote several books:

The Citizen and His Country, 1958
Children's Rights in Israel, 1964 (written in Hebrew)
The Arrangement - From a State of Law to a State of Religion, on Relations Between State and Religion, 1970 (written in Hebrew)
Women as Human Beings, 1976 (written in Hebrew)
"Up the down escalator" in Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, edited by Robin Morgan, 1984.
Democracy in Shackles (Demokratia be'azikim)
Israel: Democracy or Ethnocracy? published in 2008