Ziva Glanz

Ziva Glanz, a resident of Mevaseret Zion, married and a mother of five, is CEO of the Sha’ar Group and founder of LaShuv, a network for the absorption of immigrants from Western countries. She is originally from Passaic, New Jersey, and made aliyah in 2005.

She began her management career at twenty as associate director of the Hebron Fund, managing relations with international donors and foundations. From 2010 to 2015 she directed Jerusalem 5800, a private master plan for the greater Jerusalem metropolitan region covering tourism, transportation, and the regional economy. Since 2019 she has been CEO of the Sha’ar Group, which leads public-private partnerships in regional infrastructure projects requiring statutory planning approval. The group acts on behalf of international investors and works with government ministries and local authorities. In 2020 she founded Rainmaker and Associates, which advises NGOs and international development initiatives on housing, retirement communities, and urban master plans.

In 2014 she organized donations and meals for soldiers during the search for the three kidnapped boys and supplied essential equipment during Operation Protective Edge. Her work during the search is mentioned in the book by Bat-Galim Shaer, mother of Gil-ad Shaer, may God avenge his blood. On October 7, 2023, within hours of the attack, she issued purchase orders around the world for tactical equipment, rallied major donors to the war effort, and supplied equipment to soldiers on behalf of international organizations. She was subsequently appointed co-director of the Discretionary Fund of Israel, and from the civilian war room of the Ministry of Defense she directed the coordination of major donations at the national level.

As founder of LaShuv she built, entirely as a volunteer, an umbrella network uniting organizations working in immigrant absorption, to coordinate and streamline the long-term absorption of immigrants from Western countries. Through the network she assists groups seeking to make aliyah together and represents their housing, education, and community needs before government ministries.

She has been involved with The Next Step, the Israeli association for amputees, since its first day. After losing an infant about a decade ago, she co-founded an international support group for bereaved Jewish mothers and worked with state authorities to change how bereaved parents are treated and how the registration and burial of infants are handled in Israel. She holds a master’s degree in public administration with a focus on government administration, and a bachelor’s degree in biology.