Aliza Bloch steps down from YASA presidency amid reported political comeback plans

Dr. Aliza Bloch, the former mayor of Beit Shemesh, has resigned as president of the Israel Center for Excellence in Education, known as YASA, as she moves toward a possible return to politics. N12 reported on June 27, 2026, that Bloch informed the organization’s leadership in recent days and is now in advanced talks with several political frameworks.

According to people close to her, Bloch is also seriously considering running independently at the head of a new party with a social agenda. In a farewell letter to YASA’s board, staff and students, she wrote, “I am going out on a new path, for a better Israel,” and added, “In a country that does not have abundant natural resources, people are the most valuable resource.” She said that children who grow up in diverse settings, including boys and girls, Jews and Arabs, religious and secular families, and children from development towns, kibbutzim and cities, will become better leaders with fewer blind spots.

During her short tenure at YASA, Bloch promoted opening branches in Netivot and Kiryat Shmona. She said the Kiryat Shmona decision was driven by a meeting with a displaced father from the north, and called it an expression of the group’s values, being present where people need it, during a difficult period of recovery and renewal between rounds of war and evacuation. In her letter, she thanked former Education Minister and YASA board chairman Shai Piron and CEO Adi Blotner.

Bloch has political experience. After an aborted bid in 2013, she made history in 2018 when she was elected mayor of Beit Shemesh as an independent candidate, defeating incumbent Moshe Abutbul with 50.6% of the vote. She served until the 2024 local elections, when she ran for another term, reached the runoff against Shmuel Greenberg of Degel HaTorah, and lost after he won backing from all Haredi lists in the city, taking 57.9% to her 42.1%. After that defeat, she left the city council. In September 2024, she was appointed president of YASA and moved to Kiryat Shmona to help establish a branch there.