Yaroslavsky in 2009 Member of the from District 3 In office December 1, 1994 – December 1, 2014 Preceded by Succeeded by Member of the from District 5 In office 1975–1994 Personal details Born ( 1948-12-21) December 21, 1948 (age 70) Political party Spouse(s) Barbara Yaroslavsky Children 2 Residence Website Zev Yaroslavsky is a politician from,. He was a member of the from District 3, which includes the, the and coastal areas between and the line. He was first elected to the board in 1994. Yaroslavsky served on the from 1975 to 1994. He was active in the areas of transportation, the environment, health care and cultural affairs. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Biography [ ] Family [ ] Zev Yaroslavsky, the son of David and Minna Yaroslavsky, was born on December 21, 1948, in Los Angeles. He and his older sister, Shimona (married name: Kushner), were the children of immigrants from the Russian Empire and grew up in a household in.

His father was a founder of the Hebrew Teachers Union in Los Angeles, and both parents, who were born in Ukraine, were founders of North American, a Labor Zionist youth movement. Yaroslavsky recalled that his parents spoke to their children only in Hebrew to prepare them for emigrating to Israel. They took their children to that country when Shimona was thirteen and Zev was five. Shimona later emigrated permanently. Yaroslavsky was married to the former Barbara Edelston (1947-2018), whom he met as a student at UCLA.

In 1985, while Yaroslavsky was a City Council member, a newspaper reporter noted Yaroslavsky's frugality when described their home in the as 'a drab yellow structure with peeling paint and a dirt-patched front lawn.' The reporter noted that Yaroslavsky was known for frugality in his public and private life, spending much of his spare time following world events in newspapers and on television. Barbara Yaroslavsky was first appointed to the in 2003 and has subsequently served multiple terms as its President. The couple has two children. Education [ ] Yaroslavsky attended Melrose Avenue Elementary School, Bancroft Junior High School. He earned a in history and economics from in 1971 and a in history, specializing in the, from the same school in 1972. Afterward, he taught Hebrew at in.

Early activism [ ] Yaroslavsky first gained public notice as a UCLA student who had begun orchestrating high-profile protests in Los Angeles against oppressive treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. After a revelatory trip to visit relatives in Russia, he formed the California Students for Soviet Jews, which, as its first major action, picketed Soviet athletes in town for a track and field event at the Coliseum. Although a self-described 'flaming liberal' at the time, Yaroslavsky recruited conservative TV newsman and commentator, who, Yaroslavsky said, 'was anti-Soviet and very favorable to Soviet Jews.'

In December, 1969, they organized a candlelight protest march that would attract more than 5,000 people, including then-Mayor and television performer. In 1971, as executive director of the Southern California Council on Soviet Jewry, Yaroslavsky made news again when he led protests against the and boated into to paint 'Let My People Go' on the side of a Soviet freighter. He was arrested during one Bolshoi protest but no charges were filed. He also was 'deeply involved' in a campaign to burn credit cards after the company sent a letter to 300,000 stockholders that appeared to support a pro-Arab Middle East policy. He resigned from that $150-a-week job to campaign for the City Council.

City Council [ ] Elections [ ] See also Yaroslavsky's 1975 election to the on Los Angeles' Westside stunned the city's political establishment, which had supported his opponent, Frances M. Savitch, a former aide to then-Mayor Tom Bradley. Savitch had secured endorsements from, among others, California's two U.S.

Senators, members of Congress and an assortment of state office holders—'some of the strongest political muscle ever assembled in a City Council race,' as the Los Angeles Times put it in a post-election analysis. In the primary, Yaroslavsky ran second to Savitch, eliminating from the race, who was seeking to retake the seat she held from 1953 to 1965. Wyman endorsed Yaroslavsky in his grass-roots general election campaign. When Yaroslavsky was sworn in as the council's then-youngest member at age 26, Mayor Bradley quipped: 'Congratulations. Now you're part of the.' 'Yes,' Yaroslavsky recalled retorting, 'but the establishment is not part of me.'