SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR | FORMER MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT | WORLD
ECONOMIC FORUM YOUNG GLOBAL LEADER | CHAIR OF SHIRA
ACADEMIC CENTERS | LEADER OF THE GREEN MOVEMENT ISRAEL
Stav Shaffir was the youngest woman ever elected as a member of
parliament in Israel, where she served for seven years. Previously she was one of the
leaders of the Israeli social movement that brought hundreds of thousands of Israelis
into the streets in the summer of 2011, and became Israel's biggest-ever protest. The
movement focused on housing, social services, equality and democracy. A year after the
protests, Shaffir ran for a position on the Labour party list, and got elected in a
nationwide primary. She became an MP at age 27 and a member of the Finance
Committee, where she led a reform for budgetary transparency, exposed the
government's secret money transfers, and fought to end corrupt usage of tax-payer
money.
Two years later, she won the second seat on her party list, and founded the
Transparency Committee of parliament, where she served as chairperson for four
years. In 2017 she became the chair of the OECD parliamentary committee for
transparency and anti-corruption. She also led the parliamentary collaboration for
sustainable cities and social justice.
In 2019, Israel entered a political turmoil of four consecutive elections leading to no
result. Shaffir realized that the only way to stop the attack on democratic institutions
would be to create a cross-party, democratic union between fractions on the center-left.
She fought to establish that union - and eventually gave up her own seat for it to be
built. The establishment of the Democratic Union paved the way for the diverse, unity
government Israel has today.
Today, Shaffir is focusing on social entrepreneurship. She is the founder of the Shira
Center; a unique program for young adults with autism and special needs. In Israel,
like in most countries, there are almost no opportunities for people with
developmental disabilities to continue to learn, work and receive therapy after they
finish high-school, and most remain fully dependent upon their families. Shaffir
created the Shira Centers in order to provide young adults with autism and special
needs an opportunity to be included in a university environment, while continuing to
study and work according to their desires and abilities. The Shira Centers are located
on university campuses and create ongoing collaboration between neurotypical and
special-needs students, aiming to increase empathy and leadership skills among
participants and the surrounding community. This groundbreaking model has quickly
gained traction among academic institutions around the world, and Shaffir is now
building a research institute for autism, music and the brain, in order to develop
therapeutic technologies for the broader special-needs community.
In addition, she works globally on creating collaborations to build new ideas on the
future of democracy, and is a regular contributor to Haaretz newspaper’s opinion page.
Numerous publications have recognized Shaffir for her outstanding work: Forbes’ 30
Under 30, Apolitical’s The World’s Most Influential Young People in Government for
2018, TheMarker and Calcalist Magazine’s 100 Influencers on the Israeli Economy,
Maariv’s 50 Most Influential Women. In 2017 she was selected as a Young Global
Leader by the World Economic Forum.