Yariv Levin, a senior Israeli politician, is being profiled on his birthday through ten lesser-known details from his life and career. The piece highlights his deep political roots, his military and legal background, his linguistic skills, and his family connections, all of which shaped his path before and during public service.
According to the article, Menachem Begin was Levin’s godfather, linking him to the Revisionist camp from infancy. In the Israel Defense Forces, he studied Arabic and graduated with honors from the elite Military Intelligence language program, later becoming a translator and even commanding the program himself. In his 20s, he wrote an economic Hebrew-Arabic-English dictionary that won a special Military Intelligence prize.
Levin’s family background is presented as strongly public and ideological. His father, Arie Levin, was an Israel Prize laureate and a professor of linguistics, while both his grandfather and grandmother were active in the Irgun. Before entering the Knesset, Levin worked for years as a commercial lawyer, specializing in civil and commercial law.
The article says he was initially placed very low on the Likud primaries list and did not win a Knesset seat at first, but entered parliament only years later. In the 18th Knesset, he was among the initiators of 40 laws, a particularly high number for one term. Levin also speaks four languages, Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Spanish, served twice as Knesset speaker in separate terms, and is married to Yifat, daughter of former Likud MK Yaakov Shamai. They have three children and live in Modi'in.
