Elie Nekt, the deputy mayor of Ashdod and a lawyer, gave a highly personal interview to host Eli Gothelf about the series of crises that nearly killed him and shaped his life. He spoke about growing up amid violent anti-Semitism in Ukraine, suffering abuse after immigrating to Israel, surviving multiple serious surgeries, refusing disability benefits, and rising into politics despite severe physical limitations.
Nekt said he was born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, where his father often returned from work bleeding after being beaten for being Jewish, and where a real ax was reportedly left by the apartment door at night. He recalled being called a “little Jew” in first grade. In October 1991, at age eight, his family moved to Ashdod after the Iron Curtain fell. His father worked construction and plumbing, his mother worked as a hairdresser, and he said he was the first in the family to earn a higher education.
He described two years of repeated beatings in elementary school after he tried to defend another child, saying that five or six boys hit him every recess and that he arrived home bruised for two years without telling his parents. Later, at a school for gifted students, his shoulder repeatedly broke, even from turning in bed. Three surgeries followed, including one that moved bone from his left pelvis to his shoulder, and he learned to walk again.
At 17, after exercising at home, he suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage, collapsed by the refrigerator, and lay conscious for about an hour with left-side paralysis. He said his father happened to return early, and an ambulance driver broke with procedure and took him to Tel Hashomer, a decision he credited with saving his life. The surgeon later told him, “I was sure you would not come out of the operating room alive.” During rehabilitation at Loewenstein Hospital, he was told he would not walk again, but he eventually left on his feet with a brace and walker. He still limps, cannot tie his shoelaces easily, and cannot ride a bicycle, but says he refuses disability payments from National Insurance and sees himself as someone who chose not to live by a “disabled” label. He also discussed religion and politics, saying he respects Torah scholars and talented athletes alike, and noted that he worked in the Knesset as a parliamentary assistant and chief of staff before entering Ashdod municipal politics, where he ran for mayor in 2018 and later doubled his political strength.
